The Fang and the Web
by BasilioBoy777
Summary: SpiderMan is summoned by the Beyonder to Inuyasha's world. Will the wallcrawler be able to help the gang finally put an to Naraku's reign of terror? Get ready for some good ol'fashioned webslingin' butt kickin!
1. Visit From Beyond

**The Fang and the Web**

Chapter 1: Visit from Beyond

Thwipp! The sound of a web-shooter resonated through the New York air, barely even detectable by human ears. Swoosh! A figure clad in red and blue whizzed by above the busy city street below, drawing "ooohs" and "ahhs" from the passersby beneath him. Thud! The figure landed spectacularly on a nearby rooftop with a kind of acrobatic grace that not even an Olympic gymnast could ever hope to match. The costumed man sat down on the skyscraper he landed on to gather his thoughts and take a well-deserved break, letting his legs dangle nonchalantly over the edge.

"Oy, what a day!" the man said in a muffled voice through his full-face stretch mask to nobody in particular. "Even a guy like me needs a little breather every now and then, especially after today."

The amazing Spider-Man, Manhattan's resident wise-cracking, web-slinging superhero, let himself fall back, arms spread-eagled. It was one the few times during the day when he could just relax without having to worry about grading papers or dodging bullet fire; one of the fleeting moments he utterly cherished. Peter Parker, science teacher at Midtown High School and husband to Mary-Jane Watson, a well-accomplished actress and model, closed his eyes behind his one-way eyepieces.

As he lay peacefully, he moved his hands behind his head, making a makeshift headrest as he began to drink in the scenery around him while trying to tune out the stereotypical New York noise coming from the street below. It was the middle of April; it was a little chilly at the moment, being that it was still only eight in the morning. Mr. Parker still wasn't due at his teaching job for another hour or so, since he had first period free. It was a little irritating because he didn't get any more free time for the rest of the day, except for lunch, of course, but at least he could take his sweet time getting there in the morning. Or at least he tried to take his time. Inevitably, there was always some kind of "domestic disturbance," as he often called his reasons for being late to his various endeavors, which warranted his immediate attention and broke into his ill-fated attempt at slothfulness in his waking hours. Being Spider-Man on his "spare time," to use the term very loosely, did have its drawbacks, but it was something he knew he had to do. And there were some perks to the job, like being able to easily lift a four-door sedan over his head and throw it two-hundred feet. That sure made finding a parking space a heck of a lot easier on the nerves.

Peter breathed out heavily in his stupor before continuing his mockery of the Shakespearean monologue. "Just this morning, I already had to stop three carjackings, foil two break-in robberies, catch five purse-snatchers, and beat the tar out of both Rhino and Shocker, and all before lunch! Man, I hate Mondays. Even Thor would need a little nap after that."

"I concur, Spider-Man, but neither you nor I have that particular luxury at the present time," said a powerful-sounding voice from behind him.

Spider-Man immediately jumped up and assumed a crouched-down fighting pose. Who on earth said that? But more importantly, why hadn't he triggered his spider-sense? Once Spidey got a good look at the offender, he got his less-than-pleasant answer: no one on earth.

"Greetings to you, Spider-Man. I hope you have fared well since our last encounter," said the . . . person in front of him. He was about six feet tall, clad in some sort of full-body shining, silver armor. He had jet black hair standing almost straight up and a pointed goatee. His eyes were a pupil-less bright yellow. His ominous-sounding voice echoed despite the fact that he was outside. He radiated an aura of power, authority, respect, and strangely, kindness. Despite this, his presence was not what one would call welcome.

"Hey there, Beyonder," Spider-Man replied in a slightly irked tone. "What brings you to this neck of the galaxy? Some kind of interplanetary/dimensional threat of epic proportions, I assume?"

"Your cutting sarcasm is yet again unforgiving and delivered without the slightest attempt at concealment, as it is always, my friend. But even I must admit that you occasionally seem to have the ability to make the most dire of situations appear to be bright with your unsolicited use of witty humor. Nonetheless, this is hardly the time for such things," said the Beyonder with a small smile on his face.

"Then cut to the chase, Cosmo. I know you're not here to encourage my stand-up routine," said Spidey with his arms now folded and his posture now somewhat relaxed.

"Indeed. I have come to request your services in a quest of the utmost urgency."

"That much I already figured. What else you got? And make it quick. I gotta be in my class in a few minutes," interrupted Spider-Man, looking at the imaginary watch on his left wrist.

"You didn't allow me to finish relating the particulars of your mission. And I am afraid that your choice of occupation will have to be delayed for the time being," replied the Beyonder, holding up his right hand for silence.

"Great. Just what I needed: even more deducted pay," said Spider-Man, now clearly irritated.

"Forgive me, my friend, but you are needed, and if you do not accept the task I have for you, many more innocent people will meet a most unfortunate demise," said the Beyonder in an apologetic tone.

With the onset of this realization, Spider-Man's tone immediately changed from one of irritation to one of remorse and concern. He couldn't possibly let people get hurt, not while he had the power to prevent it. After all, "with great power comes great responsibility" was his motto. That, and "never put your costume in the wash with your underwear."

"No, forgive me, Beyonder. If someone needs me, than I'll go. No matter what it is, I'll be there in two shakes of Scorpion's tail," said Spider-Man in a confident manner.

"Much appreciated, Spider-Man. Now, back to the matter at hand. For this mission, not only must you travel to a foreign land, you must journey five hundred years into the past. You need to go back to the feudal era in Japan," explained Beyonder.

"Exsqueeze me? Baking powder?" exclaimed a very confused wall-crawler. "You can't be serious! Back in time? To Japan? The only thing I know how to say in Japanese is 'thank you' to some guy named Mr. Robotto!"

"Once again, your particular syntax eludes me, but I surmise from your exasperated tone you do not understand what I just said. Please allow me to elaborate further."

"Yes, please do!" said Spidey. He wanted to help people, but he was beginning to think he was be going to be in further over his head than if Mini-me were to join the NBA.

"As far as the language is concerned, fear not, for I shall provide a way for you to understand their speech and they yours. Now for the particulars of your task. In that time and place, there exists an extremely powerful and malevolent demon who seeks to bring sorrow and misery to all who cross his path," continued the cosmic entity.

"Whoa! Did you say 'demon?' I'm not sure I could handle a demon like that, considering my track record with those horror movie rejects. I've gone at it with Dormammu before and he thrashed my web-covered behind."

"I am afraid you are mistaken on that matter, my friend," said the Beyonder, slightly amused by the web-slinger's comment.

"No, I've got the scars to prove it. Look," replied Spider-Man as he lifted the part of his costume covering his torso.

The Beyonder quickly held up a hand to stop him. "I'd rather not, if it's all the same to you."

"Oh, sorry," apologized Spider-Man, lowering his costume.

"Anyway, this demon is arguably the most powerful that ever lived in those days. Despite this, many noble and great heroes seek to destroy him and end his reign of darkness, the fact that most of these people are pursuing him for the sake of vengeance for atrocities he has committed against them notwithstanding. Mighty and valiant they may be, for the most part, they refuse to cooperate with each other. Moreover, if they do not conquer their own inner demons first, they stand no chance against this foe. This only darkens the situation even further. Without your assistance they shall surely fail and this demon may very well consume all the earth," explained the Beyonder.

"That bad, huh?" asked Spider-Man.

"I fear that you are still understating the situation at hand. I was not finished. It gets worse," replied Beyonder.

"Figures," mumbled Spidey. "It always does."

Beyonder continued as if he had not heard him. "There exists in this land a powerfully magic jewel. Some time ago, one of the people pursuing this demon accidentally shattered this artifact. As if that was not enough, just a single fragment of this gem can increase the natural power of any demon or ill-minded human who comes to possess it at least a hundred fold. It seems that this demon has nearly succeeded in repairing this jewel; he has already recovered all but a handful of the shards."

"Wow," said Spidey, eyes wide behind his mask. "So basically, we're all pretty much royally screwed to no end. Am I right?"

"No, you are not," answered Beyonder. "True, your plight may seem futile at this point, but if you unite those pursuing this demon, and give them your own assistance, you will triumph over this great evil creature and his minions of darkness."

"Right. Whatever you say, Intergalactic Man of Mystery," replied Spider-Man while throwing up his arms in the air in a casual way. "So, when exactly do I leave for this little journey to join the Fellowship of the Jewel?"

"Glad you asked, my friend," replied Beyonder with a small grin on his face that made Peter very, very uneasy. "Right now."

Before Spider-Man could object with another one of his trademark witty comments, a swirling blue vortex of a mystical origin appeared beneath his feet. Without warning, he was pulled into the twisting portal and flown through some sort of field of cosmic energies of time and space. As Spidey whizzed past the space-time continuum, only one thing went through his mind: "Well, here I go . . . again."


	2. Help Will Arrive Soon

**The Fang and the Web**

Chapter 2: Help Will Arrive Soon

"Wench!"

"Jerk!"

"Stupid!"

"Ignoramus!"

"What?!"

"Sit, boy!"

THUD!

Inuyasha the half-demon went down face first into the dirt beneath his feet, courtesy of the incantation of the young woman he was arguing with. Oh, how he hated those rosary beads Kaede cursed him with! Not only that, but he was beginning to think his fiery feminine friend was starting to abuse that wretched power. But he had no proof of that . . . yet.

Kagome Hirgurashi, the time-traveling young maiden, stormed off toward her other friends. Steam was practically blowing from her ears as she stomped her feet down on the cold hard ground. Why that immature, insensitive little punk! How dare he insult her like that! She couldn't believe him! All the months they've known each other, slaying demons, chasing after shards of the Sikon jewel, traveling around the countryside, and journeying between the feudal era and the twenty-first century, and he still acted like a child toward her! She knew that deep down, way deep down, that he really was a good guy, but he just couldn't seem to admit it out loud. Oh well, she was confident that he would sooner or later. Make that definitely later.

Sango the demon slayer sighed as her best friend Kagome sat down on a rock next to her with what could only be described as a "hmph-ing" sound. If Kagome and Inuyasha weren't fighting with demons, they were fighting with each other. And it was always about the most asinine things: what was for dinner, something the other said that was grossly misinterpreted, when was Kagome's next trip back to her own time . . . the list goes on and on. They were hopeless, those two. She knew that they really loved each other under all the arguing, and she knew that they knew that she knew what they knew, or at least that's what she thought. Still, Kagome was right about Inuyasha being an insensitive jerk. But that lecherous "holy man" was no better. In fact, he was worse in some respects.

Miroku the Buddhist monk suddenly opened his eyes in alarm. Although he dare not turn around for fear of the tempered woman, he knew Sango's piercing gaze was angrily fixed upon him. He wasn't sure what he did this time. She wasn't even remotely within arm's reach (unfortunately), so it couldn't possibly be the, uh . . . usual reason. Still, he was certain he would soon have to face her wrath for something he did, probably a memory of a past offense he undoubtedly committed; to her, there was no such concept as "double jeopardy." If looks could kill, he would have died long ago because of that woman. But despite all of her rather negatively-charged physical outbursts (i.e., a swift slap to his face), he still cared for her deeply. He also knew that part of the reason that she did what she did was out of jealousy, even though she would never admit it. This knowledge always made his heart lighter whenever he brought it up, and smirked slightly at the thought. Unfortunately for him, Sango saw this smirk and, unarguably misinterpreting it as the result of perverted fantasies, promptly walked over and conked him on the back of his head with her fist. He resolved that he would have to be more reserved about everything around her from now on.

Shippo the fox child just sat a good distance away from the others, simply observing his friends' rather bizarre and foolish behavior. Sucking on one of the lollipops that Kagome had brought back for him from her era, he sighed at their sheer stupidity. Sometimes he thought that even though he was technically the youngest of the group, he was far and away the most calm and mature. He always hoped that his friends would act more their age and not their shoe size. He knew that they would eventually, it just seemed like they were taking their jolly sweet time with it. Sighing again, he scratched behind the ear of his feline friend curled up next to him.

Kirara the cat demon simply purred at Shippo's touch. She too was tired of her master Sango's aggressive antics and the others' own annoying personality quirks. She purred again and resumed her cat nap; she had decided to just ignore it all a long time ago.

The six of them were at their pseudo-home base in Lady Kaede's village at the present time. Kagome had just returned from her era with fresh supplies and worries about her academic career, or what was left of it anyway. Inuyasha was complaining about how she took so long, and Kagome was insisting that she did have a personal life to attend to in her own time, hence the usual argument resumed once again. The rest of the villagers were all too aware of this particular group's "emotional imperfections," to put it euphemistically, and simply went about their business as usual; kids would be kids, even slightly older ones.

Kaede had insisted that the group remained for a short while, as she claimed that she had something important to tell them. Inuyasha, with patience as long as the Cubs' World Series winning streak, was fuming about not being able to leave yet. His desire for revenge against the evil demon Naraku redefined the term "one-track mind," but the others did agree with him on some level. Just as he was about to start complaining again, Kaede approached them.

"Will ye please cease these hostilities against each other?" she said wearily. "I have come to tell ye of the dream I had last night."

"About time, you old hag!" replied Inuyasha in a gruff manner.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome reprimanded him. "Be nice!"

"Whatever," was his only answer as he looked away in disgust, folding his arms inside his red robe.

"Please, Lady Kaede, tell us of your dream," said Miroku, still rubbing the back of his head from earlier.

"Yay! Story time!" cried Shippo with joy. Ran up to Kagome and jumped in her lap, eager to listen. Kirara wasn't far behind him. She perched herself on Sango's right shoulder.

"Very well, young one. Very well," said Kaede with a smile on her face.

"Just get on with it so we can go already!" said Inuyasha.

"Sit!" Kagome recited the single-word incantation that activated the magic rosary beads around his neck.

WHAM! And Inuyasha face-planted for the eighth time in the last five minutes, shattering his previous record of seven.

"Will you stop doing that?!" he exclaimed as he pulled himself from the Inuyasha-shaped crater he was lying in.

"Only when you quit being a jerk," Kagome replied rather haughtily.

"Will ye children please stop this foolishness so that I may tell ye what I need to, and then ye may be your way," said Kaede.

"Sorry, Kaede," Kagome apologized.

The group gathered around the elderly priestess, much in the same manner a Boy Scout troop would congregate around a campfire.

"Please, no speaking until I have finished," said Kaede. She noticed that Inuyasha had opened his mouth to say something again and decided to stop him before he even started, for both his sake and hers.

"Now, last night, I was visited in a dream by the most peculiar-looking man. He stood fairly tall and he wore armor that shined silver. His hair was as black as the night sky and his eyes glowed yellow like a firefly's. He spoke in manner that suggested he was someone very powerful and wise. I could not tell if he was a man, a demon, or perhaps something else entirely," she explained.

"What did he say, Lady Kaede?" Sango inquired.

"This being said to me only two things: 'Help will arrive soon,' and 'Beware the armored one.' I know not of either of their meaning, but it struck me as significant."

"Do you suppose that perhaps the armored one was himself?" asked Miroku.

"Now, why would he tell her to beware of himself?" said Inuyasha. "It makes no sense."

"Aye, I concur with Inuyasha for once," said Kaede. "Still, I know not if we should trust this character, but I felt impressed that this was no simple dream and that ye should know about it."

"Thank you, Lady Kaede," said Kagome cheerily as she clapped her hands once. "We'll be sure to keep that in mind. Lets go, everyone!"

"Aye, be safe, child," replied Kaede with a smile. She waved as the group gathered both themselves and their belongings.

Kagome picked up her yellow backpack and placed it in the basket on her pink bicycle. Then she retrieved her bow and quiver of arrows and slung them around her shoulder. Inuyasha gathered his sword and tied the sheath around his waist. Miroku picked up his monk's staff and Sango collected her weapons. Shippo jumped onto Kagome's shoulder and Kirara did likewise on Sango's shoulder.

"Goodbye, Kaede! See you later!" said Kagome as she waved to her. The lot of them began walking down the path out of the village.

Kaede waved back at them with a smile, but it was only half-hearted. Something foreboding was approaching quickly, like the calm before the storm. She didn't know if the man in her dream would be the direct cause of it, but she knew disaster was on the horizon. She could only pray that they would persevere through this ordeal and triumph over the darkness that loomed before them.

"I like not the looks of this," was all she could say.


	3. Same Old, Same Old

**The Fang and the Web**

Chapter 3: Same Old, Same Old

"Owwwww, my head," groaned Spider-Man, rubbing his forehead to ease the pain in his temple.

The wall-crawler sat up, having previously been sprawled out on a grassy field. As soon as his migraine subsided, he opened his eyes and looked around. Instead of being surrounded by skyscrapers, he was surrounded by large trees. From the looks of things, he surmised that he was in a clearing of some sort. These trees were a lot taller and quite unlike most he had seen before. He wasn't familiar with the geography of this region, so he couldn't exactly put his finger on what they were. Some of them could've been cherry blossoms, but he couldn't be sure. Being a native New Yorker, he wasn't used to this much natural vegetation.

"Wow, this is new," he said, getting to his feet. He placed his right hand on his chin, extending his index finger and thumb, as if he were in deep thought. "Part of me wants to make a 'Wizard of Oz' reference; something like 'I'm not in New York anymore.' Yet another part of me thinks that would be too cliché, even for my taste. Still another part me thinks I should quit talking to myself, lest I develop acute schizophrenia."

His spider-sense wasn't going off, so he figured that it was safe, at least for the time being. The trees were tall enough for him to web-swing from, but not very high though. Regardless, he fired a web-line onto the nearest tree and began to explore the area around him. However, that lack of danger proved to be more of a liability than an asset in this particular situation; without a threat to trigger his spider-sense, he had no idea which way to go. He began by setting off to his right, a direction he chose randomly. After several minutes of searching for some sign of human civilization, he was still unsuccessful.

"Okay, I'm officially lost now," Spider-Man lamented. "I could have sworn I passed that tree three times now. Of course, they all look the same, so I can't really tell, but still. Now what?"

Just then, he came upon a most strange tree in particular. It seemed to be in a place of prominence in this forest, as if it were special in some way. Spider-Man somehow sensed that this tree had some sort of mystic power; call it superhero intuition. He stared at it, studied it, trying to find something that tell him what it was about this tree that gave him the heebie-jeebies. Unfortunately, the only thing about this tree that looked out of place was the fact that a large chunk of bark was missing from its north side. That, and there was a small hole in the bald spot, as if somebody shot at it with a small projectile of some sort. Looking to his left, he noticed something even more out of place: a well.

"What the?" Spider-Man asked himself. "What the heck is this thing doing way out here?"

He approached the well, convinced that the well and the tree were connected somehow. Peering into its depths, he saw the strangest thing; the well was not full of water, but bones. These bones were grotesquely shaped, as if they weren't from people or even animals.

"Well, this just keeps getting weirder and weirder, even by my standards," he said.

Suddenly, the wall-crawler heard screaming. Straining to hear where the cries were coming from, he cocked his head to his right. Then he picked up the scent of smoke and fire.

"Huh, how 'bout that?" he commented. "The pleading cries of people in danger. Evidently times haven't changed that much; still the same old lang syne."

Finally having a reliable direction to travel, Spider-Man took off in the path from where he heard the cries for help. Still, in the back of his head, knew that somehow, this wouldn't end well.

-----------------------------------------

As Inuyasha and the gang were walking down the path they were following, some miles from Lady Kaede's village, Kagome suddenly stopped. Something was wrong, very wrong.

Noticing that Kagome wasn't next to him any longer, Inuyasha turned around. "What's the matter Kagome?"

This comment caused the others to halt and turn toward their friend.

"Is something wrong, Kagome?" asked Miroku.

"Do you sense a jewel shard or something?" inquired Sango.

Kagome thought for a minute. She had this horrible feeling that something terrible was happening back at Kaede's village. She didn't think it involved a jewel shard, but it was still dangerous. Perhaps it was her intuition as a priestess, or her connection to the well and the sacred tree in that area. All she knew was that the villagers needed their help and they needed to go back . . . now.

"Something's wrong, Inuyasha," she said.

"What?!" he cried.

"Something bad is happening in Kaede's village. We need to go back!" she said.

"What are on are you talking about, you idi . . ." started Inuyasha. Just then, his powerful nose picked up the faint scent of a demon and fresh human blood, coming from the direction of Kaede's village. "Hold on. You may be right, Kagome."

"Told you! Now let's go!" she commanded.

With that, Inuyasha and the gang set off back toward Kaede's village as fast as their feet could carry them, praying with all their heart that everyone was still alright.

-----------------------------------------

Soon, the forest ended, and Spider-Man was forced to make the rest of his way to the chaos in front of him on foot. On either side of him was what appeared to be rice fields of some sort, or at least that's what he thought they might be. He was in a large patchwork-like field; large squares of ankle-deep water surrounded him, each one about fifteen feet wide. He was currently running along a strip of land roughly a yard wide between two of these little ponds.

"Crap on a stick," he muttered to himself. "I fight and travel way better in big cities like New York; more buildings to swing from and jump off of. This is gonna be real pain in the arse."

Just ahead of him, Spidey saw what appeared to be an old village. There were around two dozen huts, each made entirely of wood. The roofs of these houses were spilt down the middle, with each side slanting downward, similar to the style of the houses he was familiar with back in his home neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, made from different materials and considerably smaller, of course. Some of the boards on the roof stuck out further than the others. Each of these boards were several large stones, most likely used to weigh the roof down during wind storms. The doors, if one could really call them that, were nothing more than what appeared to be dried grass leaves sewn together. Several of these huts had sustained serious damage, as if a gargantuan monster had smashed them to pieces. And then Spidey saw the beast that did said smashing.

"Nice," was the only sarcastic comment he had to say at the moment.

Some large creature was in the middle of the village. It was gigantic, long, and scaly, like a traditional oriental dragon. Its scales were a deep navy blue and its eyes were a blood crimson. It had no legs of any kind, but its forearms were large and fearsome, each with three foot-long claws protruding from its flesh. Its strangest feature by far was, uh, what looked like a white mustache. Several of the villagers were attempting to defend themselves against this creature, but to no avail. Spears and arrows had no discernable effect on the beast.

The battle against this thing was beyond desperate at this point. One of the archers, and elderly woman in a large white blouse and long red pants, was having a particularly difficult time dealing with combating the creature, most likely due to her old age. An odd thing about this woman: she was wearing an eye patch over her right eye. She fired an arrow from her bow at the eye of dragon. Unfortunately, she was off by a foot or two, and the arrow simply ricocheted off the dragon's lower left snout. This got the beast's attention; it turned toward the old woman with a devilish glare in its eyes. It opened its toothy mouth and the back of its throat began to glow light blue. It fired a sphere of an unknown kind of energy at the old woman. Although the attack failed to find its mark, the resulting blast sent the old woman flying twenty feet, knocking her unconscious.

"Lady Kaede!" shouted one of the villagers. This man seemed average enough to Spider-Man. He was wearing an ordinary oversized blue shirt and baggy brown pants. In his hands, he held a battered old spear. The tip of the spear was scratched and dented, indicating that the wielder had attempted to attack the dragon creature multiple times without favorable results. He seemed to be in a total panic now that the old woman had been felled; she was obviously their leader of some kind. "Somebody help us!"

This shout caught the dragon's attention much in the same way as the arrow fired by the old woman, whose name was apparently Kaede, at the beast. It opened its mouth again, preparing to fire another one of its energy blasts at the man. Now it was really time for Spidey to get into action. He increased his speed as much as he could so he could rescue the man from the dragon's wrath.

"Here I come to save the . . ." Spider-Man started before he stopped himself. He was about to say something that was even too cliché for him, not to mention a violation of copyright law, so he quickly corrected himself. "Uh, I'll be right there."

Spider-Man quickly fired a web-line at the nearest non-smooshed hut. He swung as fast as he could toward the man in danger. Just before the dragon's attack obliterated him, Spider-Man scooped him up with his right arm and out of the path of the blast.

_Heh, "Like a streak of light, he arrives just in time!" I am so awesome!_ Spidey thought to himself.

The man, recovering from his shock, noticed his savior. "What the?! Who . . . who are you?" he inquired.

"The guy who just saved your sorry behind," Spidey replied bluntly. They landed about twenty or so feet from the crater made by the dragon's attack.

"What are you? Some kind of demon? Are you a friend or foe? How can I know to trust you?" the man asked suspiciously.

"Wow, you ask a lot of questions. Well, how 'bout the fact that I could have just let you fry like bacon, and yet I didn't?" he answered. _Still underappreciated, no matter where I go. Is this to be my lot in life for as long as I live? Of course it is,_ he thought to himself.

"Good point."

"So what's with Trogdor the Burninator over there?"

"Huh?"

"The dragon-thing."

"Oh right. Well, stronger and stronger demons have been becoming more active as of late. They've even been coming into villages such as this to feed on humans."

"Yikes, brutal. How long as this been going on?"

"Ever since a powerful and wicked demon named Naraku fled these lands, so a few weeks ago. They had been in fear of him because he was much stronger than they. With him gone from these lands, the demons have become much bolder."

"Well that just plain sucks. And remind me to take a rain check on info about that Naraku guy. But right now, I need to open up a can of spider butt-whoop on this overgrown iguana. Now get everyone away from here and let me handle this. And look after that old woman over there."

Before the man could ask what on earth he was talking about, Spider-Man swung back toward the dragon, ready to engage it in battle. Seeing him out of the corner of its eye, the dragon turned toward Spider-Man and opened its mouth in preparation for another of its energy attacks. Quickly, Spidey plunged down feet first onto the dragon's snout, effectively stopping its next attack. Thick gray smoke emerged from the dragon's nostrils and mouth, undoubtedly as a result of its energy assault being thwarted. Spider-Man back flipped off of the dragon, landing in a crouching position on the ground.

The man that Spider-Man had rescued made his over to Kaede, all the while watching this newcomer to the battle. "Astounding," he said. "He moves with a grace that I never seen the likes of before." He found Kaede where she was left after the dragon attacked her. She was beginning to regain consciousness. "Lady Kaede, are you alright?" He helped her to her feet.

"Aye, I will be fine, thank ye," she replied. "Who is that strange-looking warrior?"

"I know not, Lady Kaede, but he seems to be on our side."

"Hmmm, still, we best move away from this place."

"Of course, Lady Kaede."

With that, they made their way out of the village and into the forest where it was safe. The other villagers quickly followed suit. Now it was up to Spider-Man to take out this fearsome beast.

"Well now, it's just you and me now, scale-face. Now let's do this, spider e dragon!" said Spider-Man.

The dragon lunged forward at the wall-crawler, its mouth open wide and teeth glaring. Spider-Man easily avoided the attack by leaping onto the monster's head and running down its back. The dragon turned its head and attempted yet another one of its energy attacks. Once again, its attack failed to hit its mark, as Spider-Man front-flipped back towards the dragon's head. The blast flew past Spider-Man and struck the beast in the tail. It roared in pain, but was quickly silenced, courtesy of a right roundhouse kick to the face from everyone's favorite web-slinger. The dragon fell on its face in the dirt. Spider-Man landed in front of it.

"Ha! Take that, you Jurassic Park reject!" he gloated. "And I'll have you know I taught Chuck Norris everything he knows."

The dragon reared up again, apparently not quite willing to admit defeat yet. It opened its mouth for yet another energy attack.

"Jeez, doesn't this thing know how to do anything else?" groaned Spidey. "Hasn't it realized yet that it has the aim of an Imperial Stormtrooper? Oh well, time to finish this!"

Spider-Man fired his web-shooter at the beast's mouth, blocking it with a web-net. Then, just for good measure, he did the same to the dragon's eyes. Now in a glorified frenzy, it thrashed around like crazy, smashing even more buildings. Seeking to end this right here and now, Spidey leapt up at the dragon and delivered a mighty uppercut punch to its lower jaw. The beast fell on its back, and the energy attack it had been charging exploded in its mouth. Satisfied with his victory, he started walking back toward the forest to retrieve the villagers from their sanctuary.

"Well, that was easy enough."

Just then, his spider-sense went ballistic. Spider-Man whipped around and assumed a fighting pose. Sure enough, the dragon rose again, albeit in a considerably worse shape; its face was blackened and a few of its teeth were missing. It was clearly in a rather foul mood.

"Oy vey, I spoke too soon."

The dragon lunged forward again, mouth open and claws ready. Spider-Man readied himself for the attack. Then, all of a sudden, the creature stopped its assault. It raised itself up to its full height and looked around. It sniffed the air, as it were searching for something, something it detected in the area. Then, in its most unexpected move yet, it turned tail and fled.

"What the?" said a dumbfounded Spider-Man. "Was it something I said? Do I have B.O.?" He lifted his left arm and took a quick whiff. "No, I don't think it's that." Spidey stood up and looked around for a bit, trying to locate whatever it was that scared off the dragon monster. Despite his efforts, he didn't see or sense anything particularly out of place. "What in the name of J. Jonah Jameson's cigar was that all about?"

Unfortunately, the web-head didn't have time to figure it out.

"Hey you! Hold it right there!" cried out an angry male voice.

"Now what?!" complained Spider-Man. He turned in the direction of the voice. He immediately regretted it.


	4. Close Encounters of the Weird Kind

**The Fang and the Web**

Chapter 4: Close Encounters of the Weird Kind

Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo, Miroku, and Sango arrived to see a destroyed village in front of them. Several homes were smashed, plants and trees uprooted, and several craters dotted the landscape. There was no sign of the villagers anywhere.

"Oh my," a grief-stricken Kagome said quietly. "Who could have done this?"

"I'm willing to stake my other hand that it was Naraku," said Miroku.

"Only because your other one is cursed," muttered Sango.

Inuyasha surprisingly spoke up. "Now is not the time, Sango. The air is thick with the smell of fresh human blood." His keen demon senses picked up on Kaede's scent. He was about to try and find where she was when he spotted a figure in the middle of the village. "Hey who's that?" he asked the others.

"I don't know," replied Kagome. "At least, I can't tell from here. Let's get closer so we can see."

"Fine, but be careful everyone," Inuyasha conceded. "I'm pretty sure that this guy did this."

"I agree with Inuyasha," said Miroku. "We do not yet know if this man is friend or foe."

The lot of them left the majority of their possessions, mainly Kagome's bike and backpack, where they were so they would not be in the way should a fight ensue (and given their previous experience, one probably would). Sango also changed out of her usual kimono and into her demon slayer's battle armor. They gathered their weapons and readied themselves for combat; Inuyasha kept his demon sword forged of his father's fang—Tetsusaiga—at his side and ready to be drawn, Miroku garnered his staff, Kagome gathered her short bow and quiver of arrows, and Sango grabbed hold of her giant boomerang made from the bones of demons—Hiraikotsu**—**and her sword. They **s**lowly inched their way toward the center of the village where the mystery man stood. When they were just within eyesight, they ducked behind a one of the structures that wasn't completely demolished yet. They peeked their heads around the corner of the building a tried to get a good look at the unfamiliar figure before them. From what they could tell, the figure was facing them slightly, with the most of his left side visible to them. They didn't think he had noticed their presence yet.

"No way that guy's a human," commented Inuyasha. "Just look at him. He has to be a demon."

The figure's body had the most bizarre markings on it any of them had every seen on a demon. Most of his upper torso was colored bright red, as was his hands, feet, and head. The lower half of his arms and the outermost sides of his torso were a medium blue, in addition to all of his legs down to his ankles. All of the parts of his body that were red had a strange web-like pattern lain over it. In the middle of his chest was what appeared to be a mark shaped like a black spider, its legs spread apart as if it were crawling on his body. It must have been some sort royalty or kinship mark, much like the light blue crescent moon on the forehead of Inuyasha's elder full-demon brother, Sesshomaru. The figure's eyes were nothing more than abnormally large white spots with black outlines on his face. They were permanently fixed in a diagonal position, like if he were constantly frowning. There was no discernable nose, mouth, or ears of any kind on this creature. He also appeared to be quite muscular, judging from his countenance. On all accounts, he looked like a weird offshoot of a spider demon, a strangely colored, human-shaped one even.

The figure's arms were crossed over his chest and he was surveying the scene. Undoubtedly congratulating himself on the damage he had just caused. He turned around and the group saw something most disturbing: there was a spider-shaped red mark on his back against his blue skin!

"Look at that!" exclaimed Inuyasha. "That looks like a burn mark just like the ones on Naraku's incarnations!"

"He must be Naraku's latest detachment," said Miroku with noticeable venom in his voice. "This demon must have been ordered by Naraku to destroy the village and kill its inhabitants for revenge and sport."

"That Naraku is the foulest creature on earth!" said an equally angry Kagome.

"This newest incarnation must be destroyed!" growled Sango.

"Uh guys, maybe we should find out more about him first?" squeaked Shippo, who had been on Kagome's shoulder.

"There's no time for that, Shippo," said Miroku. "We have to attack him now, while his guard is down!"

"Hey you! Hold it right there!" Inuyasha shouted at the demon.

"I'll finish him off in one move!" exclaimed Sango. She cried out the name of her weapon, "HIRAIKOTSU!" as she threw it at the creature. She just hoped it would be enough to kill him. If this monster could decimate an entire village, destroying all traces of civilization and people, without getting so much as a scratch on him, there was no telling how strong he could be.

-----------------------------------------

"Holy. Freakin'. Crap," was all Spider-Man could say.

Flying straight at him at an incredible speed was what looked like a gigantic boomerang. It was mainly a tan-ish brown, with dark brown sashes tied together at each end. With his amazing agility and spectacular spider-sense, it was more than effortless for him to evade it by leaping straight up.

"By the hammer of Thor! What in the multiverse was that?!" he thought out loud. Then something horrific came to mind. "Wait. That couldn't have belonged to my old sparring partner, Fred Myers, could it? What on earth would Boomerang be doing here?" His answer would have to be cut short; the boomerang-shaped weapon was returning. "Whoa boy!"

Another back flip and the weapon was out of range. Spider-Man looked intently at the boomerang's flight path, in an attempt to locate its owner. Sure enough, it came to rest in the hands of what appeared to be teenage girl. Coming up behind her were five other individuals, who seemed to be just as equally out of place as the girl.

"Okay, this warrants a further investigation, to say the least," remarked Spidey.

These six . . . urm, he wanted to say "people," were far and away some of the strangest-looking whack jobs Spider-Man had seen . . . that week. The girl who caught the boomerang thingy was dressed in black armor. For some odd reason, probably as more of a fashion statement than anything else, the joint shields on the armor, as well as a waist guard and open-fingered gloves, were pink. Red sashes hung from the girl's waist, elbows, shoulders, wrists, and ankles. She also carried a traditional Japanese katana in her sash on her left side. She was wearing pink eyeliner and her brown hair was currently in a long ponytail flowing down her back. She had a most intense look on her face, one of almost hatred for the former target of her weapon, her brown eyes focused and determined. It was clear that despite her age, this girl had definitely seen battle before, and was probably very good at it.

Perched on this woman's shoulder was a rather bizarre creature. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary housecat. Despite this Spider-Man personal experience and superhero intuition told him that this thing was far from ordinary. Come to think of it, nothing in his life really was, but that wasn't the point right now. The cat's eyes were unusually large, and red. There was a weird-looking black cross-shaped fur patch on the cat's head, clashing wildly with its otherwise brilliant golden coat. When its tail twitched, Spidey noticed that there were actually two of them. Nope, definitely not a normal cat. It jumped off of the young woman's shoulder and hissed wildly, readied in a defensive stance. Evidently, this thing wanted a piece of Spidey too, just like its master.

Standing to the young woman's right was young man, at least one full head taller than her, who could have possibly been a little older. He was carrying a long wooden staff with a gold ornament at the head. The ornament was circular in shape, with a thin spike continuing up from the shaft bisecting the ring into symmetrical halves. Several smaller gold rings hung from either side of the spike, their purpose, aside from decoration, currently unknown. His right hand, which was holding the staff, was covered in a purple glove that completely sheltered his entire palm. Wrapped around this glove was a string of light blue-colored beads. The man was wearing a black, um, dress-looking thing, with a large purple robe almost completely covering it. To complete the getup, he wore simple brown sandals and had a pair of gold earrings. His jet black hair seemed for the most part unkempt, except for a small ponytail in the back. His face also bore a look of intense anger upon it, his black eyes focused on Spider-Man. There seemed to be a sense of foreboding doom about him, but Spidey couldn't quite put his finger on it.

Standing behind the young man was a young girl, probably younger than the girl with the boomerang. She held a bow and arrow in her hands, aimed and ready to fire at a moment's notice. Judging from her stance and the firmness in her grip, it was apparent that she was already a fairly well-accomplished archer. What stood out the most about this girl was her choice of attire; it was far too out of place. If anything, it looked almost modern. Her outfit consisted of a white long-sleeve sailor-type shirt with a green collar and matching sleeve ends, a red handkerchief, a green miniskirt, white stockings, and brown shoes. Spider-Man could have sworn it looked like a school uniform, but he just assumed he was imagining it. Her chocolate eyes also had the same fury as the others, but hers was more like righteous vengeance than sheer hatred. Spidey was beginning to think that these people didn't like him very much.

Sitting on this girl's shoulder was a small boy who looked no older than five years old. At least he would have looked like a human boy, it wasn't for his pointy ears, or pawed feet, or pointy teeth, or puffy tail. This boy kinda looked like a fox, if anything. His clothing was just as peculiar as his countenance. His pants were normal enough, baggy and blue. His light blue shirt was covered with a white pattern that kind of looked like leaves, and over this was a vest that suspiciously resembled animal fur. He was the only one of the group that wasn't giving Spider-Man the hairy eyeball. On the contrary, he was shivering all over, from his light brown hair right down to his little animal-like feet. He was obviously very frightened, of Spidey, no doubt. Now this cut Spidey a little; he hated scaring kids. He just hoped that he would get a chance to explain himself before this kid wet himself.

Spider-Man thought that was the lot of the group. Then the strangest individual that he had ever seen stepped out from behind the other five. This man, if he even was a man, had striking silver hair that hung down clear to his thighs. Two longs locks hung on either side of his face and rested on his shoulders. On top of that, he had what appeared to be dogs ears perched on his head. His eyes were a bright yellow and shone with hatred even more intense than his companions. Sharp canine fangs were visible in his growling mouth. His fingernails were much longer than normal and were very sharp. He wore a large red coat of some sort. The sleeves of his coat were ridiculously wide, almost two feet. His pants were the same color as his coat, and they were very baggy. Also, he wasn't sporting any type of footwear whatsoever. Around his neck was a necklace made of black beads with a few tooth-shaped objects sporadically placed throughout it. There was absolutely no way on earth this guy was human. A mutant maybe? Spidey would have to find that out later. Right now, he had to concentrate on defending himself from these guys until he could figure out what the heck was going on.

"Hey you," the mutant guy in red pointed a finger at Spider-Man, "Who the heck are you?" he said in an aggravated tone.

"What's it to you, mack?" Spidey replied in true New Yorker form.

"You must be one of Naraku's incarnations. You're gonna pay for what you did!" the mutant in red shouted.

"Pardon?" questioned Spidey.

"I'm Inuyasha," said the mutant in red. "Now prepare to die!"

"Right to the point, this one is," Spider-Man thought to himself.

Inuyasha grasped a hold of the hilt of his sword that hung on his hip. As he drew it, the most astonishing thing happened. As the blade came out of its sheath, it transformed. Instead of a normal katana, the sword that emerged was gigantic. It was at least four feet long and a whole foot wide. The blade's edge was curved, large, and sharp. The hilt was covered in what looked like white fur. This sword was definitely powerful and was going to prove to be a problem for the wall-crawler.

_Oh boy, now I'm in trouble_, Spidey thought to himself. _But more importantly, were on earth was he stashin' that thing?_

"We should at least know the name of our enemy," said the man with the staff and gloved hand, stepping in front of his longhaired comrade. "I am the monk Miroku. This is Sango of the demon slayers' village," he gestured toward the young woman with the giant boomerang, "Lady Kagome," he indicated the girl with the bow and arrow, "Shippo the fox demon," he motioned to the kid on Kagome's shoulder, "and our cat demon friend, Kirara," he pointed at the cat creature at Sango's feet. "And who might you be?"

_Hmm, this guy seems to have more manners than that goofball in the red pullover_, thought Spidey. _Guess I might as well humor him_.

"Why, I'm the amazing Spider-Man, of course!" he replied, pointing his thumb to his chest.

"Spider . . . Man?" repeated Miroku.

"You were expecting maybe Captain America?" retorted Spidey, folding his arms across his chest.

"Spare me the small talk, Spider-Demon," interjected Inuyasha. "Shut up and fight."

"First of all, it's Spider-_Man_, you moron," snapped Spidey as he held up his finger for emphasis. "And secondly, idle banter is all part of the procedure of pre-combat protocol. Don't you know anything?"

"I know that I'm gonna slice you in half with my Tetsusaiga!"

Spider-Man figured he was talking about his sword. He named it. Cute. "That's quite the big sword you're swingin' around there, Sparky," he said. "You tryin' to compensate for somethin'?"

Inuyasha stared at Spider-Man, utterly dumbfounded by what was just said. Miroku, on the other hand, couldn't help but snicker a bit at the little innuendo.

"What's so funny, Miroku?" Inuyasha growled.

"Oh, huh? Nothing," replied Miroku.

"Enough! Now taste my blade!" Inuyasha cried.

Inuyasha leapt at Spider-Man and swung the Tetsusaiga at him in a horizontal swipe. Spidey easily avoided it with a back flip. Inuyasha tried a downward swipe, but Spidey merely sidestepped it. Next, he swung the Tetsusaiga diagonally from the right, and again his attack was effortlessly avoided. Again he swung, this time from the opposite direction, and again he failed to connect. Inuyasha threw volley after volley of attacks at his adversary, but Spider-Man simply dodged each blow, moving out of the way ever so slightly, letting his spider-sense guide him.

"Wow. Chow Yun-Fat you're not," said Spider-Man as he continued to evade Inuyasha's repeated strikes.

"Just die already!" shouted Inuyasha as he mounted another assault.

"Well, when you put it that way . . ." said Spider-Man sarcastically.

All the while, the other members of Inuyasha's group were watching the intense battle. They were beginning to worry; Inuyasha had yet to land a single attack. This wasn't looking good for them.

"This is bad," said Miroku grimly. "Inuyasha's attacks aren't working on this new incarnation."

"Looks that way," added Sango. "We may have to step in. But he still hasn't used the Wind Scar yet."

"Hmmm," muttered Kagome. Something about this demon didn't seem right to her. He sure wasn't acting like any demon they had encountered before.

"Something the matter, Kagome?" asked Miroku.

Kagome snapped out of her trance. "Oh? What? Um, nothing."

Inuyasha backed off from his assault. He held the Tetsusaiga at the ready, as if preparing for another attack. "No more kid stuff! Get a load of this!"

Spider-Man's spider-sense screamed like it had never screamed before. He saw why as Inuyasha's Tetsusaiga swirled with a mystic energy. What looked like materialized winds wrapped around the blade and crackled with monstrous power.

"This is gonna hurt," Spidey thought. "A lot."

"WIND SCAR!" Inuyasha cried as he mightily swung his sword.

The energy around Tetsusaiga unraveled from the blade and violently traveled along the ground. The bright yellow force tore through the earth like paper, leaving a deep gouge in the land. Spider-Man immediately starting a chain of back flips to avoid the attack. Somehow, he was able to stay one step ahead of the energy backlash, until it came to the point where it would consume him in a manner of milliseconds. Gathering a mass of strength, Spider-Man halted his evasive maneuvers in favor of leaping straight into the air. The Wind Scar attack narrowly missed him. Spidey landed in a tree a few feet away, one of the small number of undamaged things in the area.

"No way," Inuyasha was speechless that Spider-Man had just avoided his most powerful attack.

"Way," replied Spider-Man in his best imitation of Wayne Campbell. "That was quite the doozy, Chuckles. I'm afraid I can't let you try that again."

He fired a web-line at Tetsusaiga's hilt. Inuyasha was too surprised by the attack to try and block it. With an amount of force that Inuyasha was unprepared for, Spider-Man yanked the blade right out of his hands.

"Jack mode!" shouted Spider-Man as he took the sword from Inuyasha.

As soon as the blade left Inuyasha's hands, it reverted to its original form. It became nothing more than an ordinary katana. At least it would have been ordinary, had it not been for its excessive amount of rust and the sharpness of a butter knife.

"I think your toy just lost its mojo, pal," commented Spidey as he caught it. "Still, finders-keepers, buddy. You ain't gettin' this back."

Spider-Man thrust the sword into the trunk of the tree just beneath him. To make sure it didn't go anywhere, he webbed it in place. He leapt from his crouching position in the tree and landed right in front of an utterly dumbfounded Inuyasha.

"Now, where were we?" Spidey thought out loud. "Oh yeah! I was in the middle of thrashing your sorry butt."

The insult snapped Inuyasha to his normal, ill-tempered self. "Is that so? Well, I don't even need my sword to kill you!" He extended his claws and cracked his knuckles. "I can rip you apart with my bare hands!"

Inuyasha threw a punch at Spider-Man's face. Spidey easily caught it with his own open hand. Inuyasha then tried again with his free hand, but he was blocked again in the same way. The fingers of the two fighters interlocked. The wrestled with each other, both trying to overpower their opponent and force them to the ground. To either's dismay, it was a stalemate.

_Who is this guy? He's just as strong as me!_ thought Spider-Man.

_Who is this guy? He's just as strong as me!_ thought Inuyasha.

Spider-Man had had just about enough of this. "Well, not that this isn't fun, but I kinda need to end this soon 'cause 'Desperate Housewives' is on in a few hours and I don't wanna miss it."

With his spider-strength, Spider-Man lifted his legs off the ground while still clutching hands with Inuyasha. He put his feet up to Inuyasha's chest and pushed him with all his might. Inuyasha immediately lost his grip and was thrown twenty feet away from his opponent. Spider-Man quickly regained his composure and leapt over to Inuyasha as he hit the ground with a thud and a grunt. To make sure he didn't go anywhere, Spider-Man webbed Inuyasha to the ground.

"And stay down, ya mook," he added insult to injury.

"What the?! What is this stuff?!" shouted Inuyasha angrily as he struggled in vain to free himself. "Release me right now!"

"Maybe when monkeys fly out my butt, Junior."

Now Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kagome were really worried. Inuyasha had just been defeated, and rather easily at that. If this demon could beat Inuyasha like that, they were in real trouble.

"Now this _definitely_ isn't good," said Miroku. "Inuyasha has been overpowered. Don't worry though, ladies. I'll take care of this with my Wind Tunnel."

"Alright, Miroku," consented Sango. "Just be careful."

"Of course, my dear Sango," said Miroku with a smirk on his face.

"Save it, you lecher," replied a now irritated Sango.

Miroku calmly approached Spider-Man. Spidey's spider-sense tingled a bit, and he backed away from Inuyasha. Miroku stopped between Inuyasha and Spider-Man.

"Miroku!" Inuyasha called. "Get me outta this thing!"

"All in due time, my friend," Miroku replied evenly as he thrust the bottom of his staff into the ground next to him. "But now I must dispatch this demon with my Wind Tunnel."

"So, another batter steps up to the plate, eh?" said Spidey as he readied himself for another fight.

Miroku removed the beads covering his arm and began to unravel the glove around his right hand. As he did so, Spider-Man's spider-sense blared like crazy. This hand of his must have held some terrible power. Just to be safe, Spider-Man leapt backwards to put some distance between himself and his new adversary.

"WIND TUNNEL!" Miroku cried as he unleashed his awesome power.

Miroku held out his right hand straight out toward Spider-Man. Immediately, an insanely powerful wind came out of a black hole in the middle of his hand. This wind had an incredible pull; it drew in everything in front of it toward the center of the black hole. The vacuum created by this hole was very strong. Chunks of ground, rocks, pieces of destroyed buildings, even a few trees were uprooted and sucked into the void, basically anything that wasn't nailed down to the floor. As he held out his hand, Miroku braced it with his other arm and held his ground.

The instant Miroku used his Wind Tunnel and it began to suck in everything around it, Spider-Man instinctively used his ability to cling to any surface to adhere himself to the ground. He threw his arms in front of his face and crossed them, so he could protect himself from any dangerous debris. Thanks to his power, his body refused to move from the spot where he stood.

"What the? My Wind Tunnel isn't having any effect!" said a stunned Miroku.

"Oh no," muttered Sango.

Miroku, seeing how his Wind Tunnel wasn't doing anything, withdrew his hand and covered up the black hole.

Seeing that the imminent danger had passed, Spider-Man lowered his arms. "Well, wasn't that a breath of fresh air? At least you'll never have to buy a Hoover."

Spider-Man leapt forward toward Miroku as quick as lightning and, before he could defend himself, knocked him down with a single spider-powered right hook to the head. Then he too received the web treatment courtesy of Spidey, the same as Inuyasha.

"Arrggh!" he moaned. "How humiliating."

"Nice to see you down here too, you moron," said Inuyasha sarcastically. "Why couldn't you have just freed me instead of trying to fight that guy by yourself like some kind of demented fool?"

"You mean kind of like you did?" retorted Miroku. Inuyasha stayed silent.

"Miroku!" Sango cried. Her face flashed with even more anger than before. "Kagome, you wait here. He's mine!"

Kagome merely nodded in compliance. She still had this feeling that this demon, Spider-Man, really wasn't what he seemed to be. Nonetheless, she thought it best to keep her mouth shut for the moment.

"Come on, Kirara!" Sango called to her pet demon cat. She mewed in response and followed behind her. Sango grabbed her Hiraikotsu once again and ran toward with Spider-Man with all her fury.

"How dare you do that to my friends!" she shouted at Spider-Man.

"Hey, lady, don't look at me; they started it," replied Spidey, pointing to Inuyasha and Miroku, who were still webbed to the ground.

Sango began a furious assault, swinging her Hiraikotsu around like she was possessed. Spider-Man was able to easily dodge her attacks much like he did with Inuyasha. However, it still was somewhat more difficult than his battle with Inuyasha because Sango was considerably angrier and therefore fought much harder.

"Geez, lady! What's with 'Kill Bill' bit, huh?" he said as he avoided even more of Sango's attacks. "Who do you think you are, Beatrix Kiddo?"

Fed up with her useless offensive, Sango stopped and leapt backwards. She launched her weapon at her opponent.

"HIRAIKOTSU!" she shouted as she threw it at him.

"Gesundheit!" Spider-Man said as he leapt over Sango's weapon with ease.

Sango's Hiraikotsu returned to her hand and she resumed her volley of swinging attacks against Spider-Man, and he resumed dodging them. Spider-Man was really beginning to get tired of being attacked, so he decided to get the young woman's attention and try to get some answers out of her. He caught her weapon and held his ground as she tried to push him down. Spidey applied just enough of his spider-strength so he could hold her off without overwhelming her.

"Can't we all just get along?" Spidey said.

"Not with you beating up my friends!" Sango replied.

"Point taken, but what I meant was . . ." Spider-Man started. As he spoke, something he saw over Sango's shoulder caught his eye. Then he saw what was arguably the strangest thing yet since this whole ordeal started. "Um, excuse me, miss," he said politely.

Not taking note of her opponent's sudden change in demeanor, Sango replied harshly. "What?"

"Um, your cat's on fire."

It was true; the young woman's pet cat-thing was erupting in a giant ball of flame. From behind the flames, Spider-Man saw the cat grow several times in size. When the blaze subsided, the creature resembled a sabertooth tiger more than a housecat. Its basic appearance remained; it had yellow fur, red eyes, a black mark on its forehead, and two tails. Now its fangs were at least two feet long and it roared with the power of a lion. Small bands of flame encircled the creature's paws and tails. It resembled a saber-toothed tiger from hell more than a housecat at this point. It looked ready and more than willing to defend its master.

"Last time I checked, spontaneous combustion isn't supposed to be possible," said Spider-Man. "Then again, there is the Human Torch."

He threw Sango and her weapon away from himself so he could defend himself from the monstrous cat. She landed on her shoulder not far from the now webbed-up Inuyasha and Miroku. She grasped her arm in pain; it wasn't that bad, but it still hurt her enough to make her cringe a little.

The cat-creature threw itself at Spider-Man, fangs bared. The wall-crawler was barely able to grab the beast's teeth before they sank into him. The beast struggled against the wall-crawler's amazing spider-strength, and he did have to admit, this thing was powerful enough that he had to use a considerable amount of force to hold it at bay.

"Bad kitty! Bad!" scolded Spidey.

The creature took a swipe at Spider-Man with its free paw. He was barely able to move out of the way of the attack.

"Hey, I'll give you some Meow Mix if you knock it off," he said. It didn't seem interested.

Just then, Sango regained her composure and drew her katana. "This has to stop, now!" she said.

"Lady, I couldn't have said it any better myself," commented Spidey while still grappling with her cat-beast.

With that, Spider-Man threw the cat-beast off of him with a single burst of spider-strength. Thanks to the creature's own power, it didn't go very far. Before it could recover though, Spidey delivered a single, forceful punch with all his might to its head. That sent it flying back toward where Sango, Inuyasha, and Miroku lay. It struggled for a moment, but it lost consciousness soon afterward. When it did, it immediately reverted back to its original state, that of a small housecat, in another quick burst of flame.

"Kirara!" cried Sango as she saw her friend get beat. "Why, you!"

"Sango, wait!" called Inuyasha.

She was surprised for a moment, but soon recovered. "What?!"

"You're just not strong enough to beat this guy," said Inuyasha. "Plus, you're hurt. Let me do it! Cut us free from this blasted stuff!"

"Inuyasha is right for once," agreed Miroku. "He is too powerful for humans like us to battle head on like we have been. Inuyasha's the only one of us who's tough enough to match his strength."

Sango pondered this for a moment. "Alright," she consented.

She used her katana to cut Inuyasha and Miroku free from their web prison.

"Thanks, Sango," said Miroku as he stood up.

"Whatever," said Inuyasha. "Now I can really cut this guy to pieces!"

"Well, he's the same as ever," said Sango sarcastically.

Inuyasha stood and flexed his claws. "I'm going to send you Hell, you miserable fool!"

"Well, that's not a very nice thing to say," commented Spidey as he assumed his signature fighting pose yet again. "Just what did I do to tick you off so much?"

"You're one of Naraku's incarnations!" replied Inuyasha. "That spider-shaped burn mark on your back proves it!"

"Wait, what?" said a puzzled Spider-Man. "You mean this?" He pointed to his back with his thumb. "This isn't a burn; it's fabric. Look." He pulled at his costume at his chest, stretching it to prove that it wasn't his natural skin.

"Save it!" shouted Inuyasha as he charged at Spider-Man, claws forward and bared.

"Fine!" replied Spider-Man. "You know, I'm not one for continued senseless and gratuitous violence, but if you want another dose of pownage, then I would be only too happy to oblige."

All the while, Kagome was watching the fight very closely, especially their new enemy, Spider-Man. Something about this demon, if he even was a demon, didn't seem right. He was too . . . carefree. He seemed too laid back about this whole thing, not evil at all. If he was, why hadn't he killed them when he had the chance? He also only overpowered Inuyasha and Miroku, not outright harmed them. He wasn't really sinister, more like . . . funny. He was making too many jokes to be someone who was evil. Also, the stuff he was talking about; they all seemed to be from her modern era. How could he know about things like that? On top of all that, his named sounded almost familiar, like she might have read it somewhere. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks. She had to stop this!

By now, Inuyasha was close to Spider-Man, too close. He lunged at Spidey with his claws and began his signature attack. "IRON REAVER SOUL STEAL . . ."

Before he could finish, Kagome interrupted with _her_ signature catch phrase. "Inuyasha, sit!"

WHAM! As per every time that command was used, Inuyasha plunged face first into the ground beneath him, leaving behind an Inuyasha-shaped crater. Spider-Man could only stare at him, completely bewildered at what just happened.

"Uh, did I miss something?" he said while still in a fighting pose.

Kagome ran up to Spider-Man and Inuyasha. A confused Sango, Miroku, and Shippo joined them.

"Kagome! What did you do that for?" mumbled Inuyasha from the dirt.

"You shush! Spider-Man isn't our enemy!" she replied. She looked at Spider-Man. "Aren't you?"

He relaxed from his battle stance and scratched his head. "Honestly, I don't think so. You all don't seem like sadistic psychopaths to me, either." He quickly glanced at Sango and then Inuyasha. "Not really, anyway."

"You're not from around here, are you, Spider-Man?" asked Kagome.

"Actually, I'm not," he replied. "And I take it you're not either. Truth be told, my hometown is New York City, in America. Twenty-first century America to be exact."

Kagome clapped her hands together in excitement. "Really? Me too! From the modern era I mean. My family runs a shrine in Tokyo."

"Reeeeheeeeallly? Then maybe you and I can figure out what on earth is going on around here. Oh! Where are my manners? I must have left them in my other costume." He bowed to Kagome and the others in a mock gentlemanly way. "I am Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, at ya soivice! You can call me 'Spidey' if you want." He got back up and looked at Inuyasha. "Is Wile E. Coyote over there gonna be okay?"

Shippo spoke up for the first time in long while. "Don't worry about him; that happens to him all the time."

"Huh, how 'bout that?" remarked Spidey.

Miroku walked up to Spider-Man. "Excuse me then, Mr. Spider-Man," he said.

"Please . . . Miroku, was it?" Spidey interrupted. Miroku nodded to show that he was right. "Call me 'Spidey.' Mr. Spider-Man is my father. Calling me that makes me feel old. Well . . . older."

"Right then . . . Spidey," said a confused Miroku. "If you're not our enemy, I take it that you didn't attack this village either."

"That is correct, sir!" Spidey replied. "Don Pardo, tell him what he's won!"

"Uh, if you didn't do this, then who, or what, did?" asked Sango.

"I can answer that, my child," said an elderly voice.

The group turned toward the direction of the voice. They were all surprised when they saw . . .

"Lady Kaede!" cried Kagome.

"Aye, child. It is me," she said. She was being supported by the man who had carried her off earlier. The rest of the villagers were following behind her from out of the nearby forest.

"Lady Kaede, you're all right," said a relieved Sango. "And the rest of the villagers as well. Thank goodness."

"Aye, that we are," she said as the man let her go to attend to his family. "We were attacked a short time ago by a ferocious dragon demon, one that had decided to venture out and hunt humans for food because of Naraku's recent disappearance from these lands, no doubt. We were severely outmatched by this creature and it looked like we would face certain destruction at its hands. Then this man," she nodded at Spider-Man, "came along from out of nowhere and handily defeated the demon with skill, courage, and swiftness, the likes of which I had never seen before. He saved all of our lives. And the village sustained minimal damage as well, all thanks to him."

"Fawget about it," said Spider-Man in a mock gangster tone.

"Yes, it seems that we owe you an apology," said Miroku. "We're sorry for harming you."

"Don't worry about it; you didn't," Spidey said. "And sorry for wailing on you guys. I can kinda get carried away sometimes."

"So, live and let live?" said Kagome.

"Of course," replied Spider-Man.

"Now, I believe we get down to business here," said Kaede. "We need to know why this man is here and perhaps explain the particulars to each other."

"Took the words right outta my mouth, Grandma," Spidey said.

"Excuse me!" shouted Inuyasha, who had finally stood up after Kagome's incantation wore off. "You think I'm just gonna forgive you?!"

"Relax, Sparky," Spider-Man said. "You're just peeved 'cause I wiped the floors with you. And, for the record, _you_ attacked _me_."

"Yeah, Inuyasha, give it a rest, will you?" said Kagome. "Can't we just let bygones be bygones and be friends?"

Inuyasha eyed the rest of the group. When he saw that he was fighting an already lost battle, he decided to give in. "Fine, whatever. But I still want my sword back!"

"I'd be glad to oblige, Junior, but my webbing doesn't come with a solvent; it's suck up there."

"WHAT?!" Inuyasha cried. "What do you mean 'stuck?!' Sango, can you get up there and cut it down?"

"Sorry, Inuyasha, but I can't reach up that high on my own. And Kirara needs to rest right now," Sango answered.

"You mean it's trapped up there forever?!" he bellowed.

"No, my webbing's biodegradable. It'll dissolve," said Spidey.

"Really?" inquired a hopeful Inuyasha.

"In about an hour, yeah," Spider-Man answered.

Inuyasha grumbled in response. "That long?"

"Right-o, Chuckles. Deal with it."

"Indeed," said Kaede. "Until that time comes, I suggest that we all adjourn to my hut so we can make sense of all this. Follow me."

Everyone complied with Lady Kaede and they began to walk toward Kaede's hut, which was one of the few structures in the village that had been miraculously spared. Inuyasha remained behind for a moment, staring at his imprisoned Tetsusaiga. After growling again, he joined the others in Kaede's dwelling.


	5. Some 'Splanin' to Do

**The Fang and the Web**

Chapter 5: Some 'Splanin' to Do

"Nice digs," said Spider-Man as he walked into Kaede's hut behind Inuyasha, Kagome, and the others. "It's not exactly Avengers' Mansion, but nice nonetheless."

Kaede's hut was as simple as could be. It was maybe a hundred square feet; it could have been a little bigger. The floor was made of wood, with a small square of dirt in the center where there were burnt cinders. Apparently, it was a makeshift fireplace in the middle, capable of heating the entire home; economically sound, and very possible due to its small size. There really wasn't much to speak of, just a whole lot of wood.

"Pine fresh scent, too."

"What are you talking about?" asked an irritated Inuyasha.

"Never mind."

Inuyasha sat in one of the corners, his arms folded into his robe. Kagome, having already parked her bike outside, set down her bow and backpack and took a seat next to Inuyasha. Miroku and Sango took the opposite side of the room. Kirara hopped onto Sango's shoulder and Shippo sat in Kagome's lap. Kaede lit a fire in the middle of the room and put a pot full of water on it.

"I'll make us some tea," she said. "Spider-Man, please have a seat. We have much to discuss."

"Don't mind if I do," he replied. Spidey hopped backwards onto the wall and adhered himself to it. Everyone else just stared at him. "What? Is there something on my face?"

"Yeah, try that annoying mask of yours," spat Inuyasha. "Why don't you take that stupid thing off and show us your face?"

"Sorry, can't do that. Company policy."

Inuyasha just snorted in response.

"So, Spider-Man, what can you tell us about yourself?" asked Kagome kindly.

"Hmmm, nice try. But since you asked so nicely, maybe later."

Kaede handed everyone in the room a small cup with a green liquid. She walked over to Spider-Man and gave him his. He thanked her.

He stared at the liquid in the cup for a second. "Ah well. It's not coffee, but hey, 'When in Rome.' But at least tell me it's not decaf."

Kagome answered him when everyone else looked dumbfounded at what he said. "Umm, I don't think so. Why?"

"I admit I'm a bit of a caffeine addict and I kinda need my fix, if you catch my drift," he answered.

"I hear ya," she replied. "You should talk with him," she pointed a thumb at Inuyasha, who looked up curiously. "He's addicted to Ramen noodles."

"Yeah, I think they even have an anonymous hotline you can call for that now. I'd let you borrow my cell phone, but I doubt you'd get any service."

"Yeah, seeing as how wireless phones haven't been invented here yet."

"Actually, I was gonna say 'cause it's Verizon, but, sure, let's go with that. You do have a point, though. No phones, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe, it's as primitive as can be."

Kagome and Spider-Man laughed a little at their conversation, while everyone else stared at them with looks of utmost confusion on their faces. They didn't understand a word they just said.

"Well, Spidey, I gotta say, for an American, you sure do speak Japanese well," Kagome remarked after a bit.

Spider-Man looked at her strangely through his one-way eyepieces. "I don't speak Japanese."

Inuyasha interjected. "What do you mean you don't speak Japanese? You're speaking it right now!"

"No, I'm speaking English, just like I always have. And you are too."

"Well," wondered Kagome. "I do know some English from school, but I'm not very fluent. And I'm definitely not speaking it now. I wonder what's causing this."

"It's probably the Beyonder's doing. I remember he said he would pull something like this," thought Spidey aloud. He pulled the bottom of his mask up above his mouth so he could take a sip of the tea Kaede had given him. Surprisingly, it wasn't half-bad.

"Who's the Beyonder?" asked Inuyasha.

"Some really creepy cosmic guy. Shaq height, Robocop armor, Hugh Jackman hair, Incubus goatee, Michael Jackson in 'Thriller' eyes."

"Kaede!" exclaimed Kagome. "That sounds like the man from your dream!"

"It does?" said a thoroughly confused Miroku.

"Had a dream about him, eh? Heh, Disney was right; it _is_ a small world after all."

Kagome chuckled a little bit and everyone had another sip of his or her tea. The others in her group were quickly beginning to think they were going to be left out of the whole conversation.

Spidey broke the short silence. "So, Kagome, was it?" She nodded to indicate that he got her name right. "You say you're from the future—our present—as well?"

"Yep, that's right. And I gotta say that it sure is a nice relief to have someone from my own time period to talk with for a change."

"Glad to hear it. So, how did _you_ get here? A modified DeLorean with a flux capacitor?"

She giggled a little. "No, the sacred well in the nearby forest. It's magic and can send me and Inuyasha 500 years to the future."

"Hmm, I thought there was something funky about that thing."

"It's called the Bone Eater's Well. Demons that are thrown in dissolve quickly," Kagome explained.

"Well, that explains the weird bones in there. Can it only transport the two of you?"

"Yeah, sorry."

"Bloody hell, that's gonna make this a scotch bit difficult," he said in a mock British accent.

"How did you get here then?"

"Beyonder teleported me from 21st century New York to here. And right in the middle of one of my patrols too."

"Teleported?"

"Yeah, it was pretty freaky," he said. He added as an afterthought, "Although, it wasn't nearly as weird as some of the stuff Dr. Strange has put me through, but that's another thing entirely."

Kaede spoke up. "Do you know why this Beyonder brought you here?"

"He mentioned something about some powerful demon who was wreaking some serious havoc in these here parts. I'm supposed to help out some people who are pursuing him put him on ice. I assume that's you."

"That's right," said Kagome.

"He also said something about a magic jewel that somebody broke and now that demon's got most of the pieces."

"Umm, that was me," Kagome said meekly. "I broke the jewel."

Spider-Man looked over at her. Her head was held down and a look of severe depression was on her face, a look that Peter himself knew all too well. He spoke with the most caring voice he could muster. "Look, Kagome don't worry about it. We all make mistakes. And sometimes, things happen that are beyond our control, so there's no use beating ourselves up about them. Cheer up, kid."

Everyone in the room looked at Spider-Man. Who would have known that this goofball could have had such a kind heart? Maybe, just maybe, they could stand having him around.

Then, just as quickly as it came, Spidey switched back to his normal tone. "Besides, I've done stupider things. Trust me." Everyone sweat-dropped. "It's like they said in that 'Lion King' movie: 'Hakuna Matata.' I'd sing the whole song for you, but I suck at that kinda thing and I don't wanna get sued for copyright infringement."

Inuyasha decided he had had enough stupid talk for one afternoon. "Well, that demon that Beyonder guy mentioned has to be Naraku."

"You know," said Spidey, "that is like the tenth time I've heard that name in the last half-hour. Just what is it about this Naraku fella that's got everybody talking more than that Taylor Hicks guy?"

It was Miroku's turn to explain. "Naraku is a very powerful and evil demon who we have been pursuing for some time."

"He's not even really a demon," said Inuyasha. "He's just a half-demon."

Spidey shook his head a bit in confusion. "How did that happen?"

"Allow me to tell this part of the tale," said Kaede.

"Shoot," said Spidey casually.

"Shoot what?" replied a confused Kaede.

Kagome interpreted. "He means 'continue.'"

"Well, about fifty years ago, my elder sister Kikyo found a bandit named Onigumo in a cave not far from here. He had sustained grievous burn and fracture injuries; nearly every bone in his body was broken and he was covered in scared, burned skin from head to toe."

"Bummer," said Spidey offhandedly. It earned him another round of odd looks from Inuyasha and the others.

"You know, we may be able to understand the words he is speaking, but we still cannot understand his diction," said Miroku. "But Kagome, you can, can't you?" She nodded. "At the rate this is going, you'll probably have to be a translator of sorts."

"Yeah," she agreed. "He meant 'that is most unfortunate.'"

"What she said," confirmed Spidey while pointing his thumb at Kagome.

Kaede cleared her throat rather loudly in irritation. "If I may continue with the story?"

"Oh yeah, my bad," said an embarrassed Spidey.

"He said he's sorry," Kagome quickly interpreted before anyone could ask.

"Now if there are no more interruptions," said Kaede. When everyone present shook his or her head in compliance, she continued. "As I was saying, Kikyo found the badly injured Onigumo in a cave close by. She took pity on him and cared for him in secret for a time. I also helped my elder sister during this time. As I did the duties my sister had assigned to me, I began to notice the malice that lurked in Onigumo's heart. He had learned of the Shikon Jewel, the sacred relic that my sister guarded."

Spider-Man interjected for a moment to clarify something. "I assume that's the magic jewel that Beyonder told me about?"

"Indeed, it is," answered Kaede. She continued with her story. "Now, Onigumo explained the nature of the jewel as though he had known about it for some time. He showed great and disturbing interest at what he called 'tainting the jewel with malice.' He said that if my sister expressed feelings of hatred, the jewel would become corrupted with evil and thus become even more beautiful. He showed desires for my sister that alarmed me and so I made Kikyo aware of them. She told me to pay them no heed.

"Sometime after that, Onigumo's body disappeared. From what we have come to understand, he used the last of his strength to summon countless demons to his resting place. He offered them what remained of his body and soul in exchange for their mobility. The thousands upon thousands of demons fused with Onigumo's body and he was reborn as the foul demon Naraku. Because all of the demons were bound together by Onigumo's human form, Naraku was only a half-demon instead of a complete one."

"Ah, I see," said Spidey. "I think."

"There's more to this tale, my friend," said Kaede.

"Onigumo, now Naraku, used is newfound demonic powers to impersonate Inuyasha, and . . ."

"Hold up," interrupted Spidey.

"Yes?"

"Inuyasha? As in that guy?" Spidey pointed at him. "I thought you said this all took place fifty years ago."

Inuyasha growled. "What's your point?"

Spider-Man just leaned back against the wall and shrugged. "Wow. Well-preserved."

Kaede continued. "I understand ye are somewhat confused that Inuyasha could have been alive all those years ago. But I assure ye, I shall be getting to that very soon.

"Kikyo and Inuyasha knew each other very well back then. Kikyo was supposed to bring Inuyasha the Shikon Jewel that day. He was to use it to become human."

Spider-Man raised is finger as if to ask another question, then lowered it and waived his hand, deciding against it for the moment. "Forget it."

Kaede moved on. "Naraku used his shape-shifting powers to impersonate Inuyasha and went ahead of him. He attacked and fatally wounded my sister, and took the Shikon Jewel with him. Oddly, though, he returned it to the village. Then he impersonated my sister and ambushed Inuyasha not far from the village. He attacked this village in revenge and tried to take the Shikon Jewel. However, my sister was able to pool enough of her strength to return to the village and use one last spell to seal Inuyasha to the sacred tree just outside the village with one of her sacred arrows."

"Ah," said Spidey. "That big tree with the huge chunk missing from it next to the funky well?"

"Indeed, that is the one. It was Naraku's intention all along to get Inuyasha and Kikyo to betray one another and fill their hearts with hatred and resentment. He hoped to take the jewel after it had absorbed all that negative energy. However, his plan was foiled because it was my sister's dying wish to have the jewel burned with her body so that it could never be used for evil."

"Well, if that's true, then how did Kagome get it?" asked Spidey.

"Simple. She is the reincarnation of my sister," answered Kaede.

"Huh?"

"Kagome is the reincarnation of Kikyo," Kaede repeated.

Spidey turned toward Kagome. "Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Well, I'm a westerner, so I don't necessarily buy that, but I'll leave that alone for right now."

Kagome took over from there. "You see, because of that, I was born with the sacred jewel inside my body and I have spiritual powers. I had gone into the shrine at my house that contained the sacred well in my—our—time. The jewel inside me was enough to enable one of the demons in the well, Mistress Centipede, to come back to life, drag me through the time warp in the well, and back to the feudal era. I was able to lose her during the trip, at least for a while. When I came out of the well, do you know what the first thing I saw was?"

"Rod Sterling?" suggested Spidey.

Kagome giggled a little. "No, silly. It was Inuyasha, still pinned to the sacred tree with Kikyo's enchanted arrow. A while later, after Mistress Centipede returned and had ripped the jewel out of my body, I was able to break the spell on him, and he helped us defeat her and reclaim the jewel."

Inuyasha cut in. "Yeah, until you broke later trying to get it back from another demon," he grunted.

"Only after YOU tried to take it for yourself first!" Kagome retorted.

"Well, YOU couldn't very well handle it!" Inuyasha shouted back.

Spider-Man tried to intervene before this fight got out of control. "Easy there, Sparky. Chill out before you hurt yourself."

Inuyasha snorted and leaned back again, uncaring.

Spidey turned to Kagome. "Chuckles here sure seems like a loose cannon. How to you keep this hothead in check?"

Kagome smiled and Inuyasha, sensing what was coming, went as white as his hair. "Glad you asked. Like this. Sit, Boy!"

Instantly, Inuyasha's necklace glowed a bright purple and sent him hurling to the ground, just as it always did when Kagome said that.

"ARRGH! WILL YOU QUIT DOING THAT?!" Inuyasha shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Wow." Spider-Man was near speechless. "How did you _do_ that?"

"Those beads around his neck," she explained. "They're called the Beads of Subjugation. They make him do that whenever I say the word 'sit.'"

With that word, Inuyasha face-planted again.

"Oh! Sorry, Inuyasha! I didn't mean that one!" she apologized.

"Like that makes it better," Inuyasha grunted from the floor.

"Yeah, nice bling, Sparky," Spidey added.

"Well," Kagome said, "we've been looking for the jewel shards ever since."

"And Naraku has also been trying to get all the pieces for himself?" Spidey asked.

"That's right," Kagome confirmed.

"And let me guess," said Spidey. "And he would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids?"

Kagome giggled. "Yeah, that's about the size of it."

"Well, answer me this," Spidey started. "Just what exactly does Naraku plan to do with the jewel if he completes it? Hold the world ransom for . . ." He held is right pinky finger up to his mouth. "One-hundred million dollars?"

"Actually," said Kagome, "we have no idea."

"Okay, I understand that, I guess," Spidey said. "So, who's the kid?" he asked, indicating the fox child in Kagome's lap.

It was Shippo's turn now. He decided to tell his own story. "A while ago, both my parents were killed by a pair of demons called the Thunder Brothers. Inuyasha and Kagome helped me avenge my mom and dad and I've been following them ever since, 'cause I got nowhere else to go," he said with a sad look on his face.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Sport. But you keep smiling, alright?" Spidey said. At that last comment, Shippo's face lit up with a huge smile. Kagome smiled too and rubbed Shippo's head to comfort him.

Spidey looked over to Kagome again. "So, what's the story with Donnie and Marie over there?" He indicated Miroku and Sango.

"Oh, well in that case, I'll explain my reason for being here," said Miroku when he realized that Spider-Man was talking about him. "A long time ago, my grandfather encountered Naraku. Because Naraku was a shape-shifter, every time he and my grandfather clashed, he assumed a different form. Then, one time, he took the guise of a beautiful woman and was able to catch my grandfather off guard."

"Ah, the Achilles Heel of every self-respecting guy," Spidey commented. He noticed Miroku intensely watching his right hand, the gloved one with that strange vacuum-thing in it. There was a sorrow-filled look in his eyes, one of pain and foreboding. Peter also knew that look well, but rather than pry, he decided to quit with the jokes for a while and let Miroku finish explaining his story. It was obviously painful to discuss, as if every time he told it, a little more hope left him.

"Yes, well, Naraku cut a hole in my grandfather's hand," Miroku continued. "It was to be passed down to every one of his descendants so long as Naraku lived. As you have already seen, the hole, or Wind Tunnel as I have come to call it, draws in everything around it. The real threat is that the Wind Tunnel gradually grows as time goes on. Eventually, mine will become so large that I myself will be drawn into it, just as my grandfather and my father were pulled into theirs." He sighed, but a moment later, his expression became somewhat less somber, and he sounded just the slightest bit cheerier. "However, if we are successful in destroying Naraku, the curse will be lifted. I met Inuyasha and Kagome quite a while ago. When we realized that we were after the same objective, I decided to join them."

"I see," said Spider-Man solemnly. He turned to Sango. "And, if I may ask, is your reason for going after this Naraku guy?"

Sango lowered her head while stroking Kirara's head absentmindedly. Spider-Man saw a tear fall along her cheek; whatever her reason was, it must have been devastating.

"If it's too much, you don't have to . . ."

"No, it's alright," Sango cut him off. "If you're going to help us, you should know why we are doing this." She wiped the tear from her face. It was rather pointless though, she realized; lots more were to follow. "I am a demon slayer, from a village far from here. Some time ago, my father was called for a routine mission to a lord's castle to slay a spider demon."

"A spider demon?" Spider-Man asked. She nodded. "If something bad happened because of this, I'm sorry."

She kept going. "Thanks. I know it didn't have anything to do with you, so please don't worry about that. Well, my father took the best slayers of our village, including myself and my younger brother Kohaku. Just after we killed the demon, we found out that it was a fake; the real demon had been masquerading as the castle lord. He took possession of my brother, and . . . and, forced him to kill all our comrades . . . including our father."

"My God," was all Spider-Man could say.

By this time, tears were free falling from Sango's eyes, but she pressed on through her sobs. "I noticed that Kohaku was being controlled by that horrible spider demon . . . no offense."

"Absolutely none taken. If you would be okay with it, please continue. I can already tell that this is pretty hard for you."

"Thank you, but I think I can manage. I rushed to attack the demon in disguise, but Kohaku got me first. He only injured me, but it later left a large scar. Just after, Kohaku came to his senses, and he was horrified at what he had done. The demon then ordered the castle guards to kill Kohaku, and they struck him with a flurry of arrows. I rushed over to him, but I was hit with another wave of arrows. That was the last I remember from that; I blacked out.

"The next thing I remember was forcing myself out of the ground. The lord's son had killed the imposter himself and had me and my family buried as an honor to us. However, I survived by sheer force of will, albeit badly injured. All the while, Naraku had sent a horde of demons back to my home village. Because our best slayers had gone to the lord's castle, and had been killed, the village was essentially defenseless; everyone was slain. Everybody I had ever known and loved was taken from me."

Spider-Man didn't know what to say to that. "How horrible. I'm so, so sorry."

Sango was almost balling by now. "Please . . . there's more."

"Take your time, my dear," said Kaede.

"Yes," Spider-Man agreed, "take as long as you need."

After a few minutes, Sango continued. "Naraku had been in disguise at the castle as one of the young lord's advisors. He said Inuyasha was responsible for the attack and tricked me into going after him. Thankfully, Naraku was exposed before anyone was seriously hurt. After a few days, we were able to track Naraku back to the castle. He had murdered the young lord and was then masquerading as him. That was when he pulled off his most evil deception yet. He had taken control of my brother Kohaku's mind again and was keeping him alive with a jewel shard. Try as I might, I was unable to break Naraku's hold on him. Before we could destroy him, Naraku got away. Kagome and the others promised to help me get my brother back. He's the only family I have left." By now, Sango was all but bawling.

Kirara purred from Sango's lap. She jumped up to her master's face and licked away her tears.

"And of course you too, Kirara," Sango said meekly, smiling a little.

Spider-Man sighed. "I don't know if I can say anything to ease your pain, Ms. Sango, but I will do what I can, if you'll let me," he said kindly.

"Thank you," said Sango.

"So, you'll help us destroy Naraku?" asked Kagome hopefully.

Spider-Man raised his head slightly, and rubbed his chin with his hand. He spoke in a mock raspy and low voice. "You come to me, on this, a day of the week I'm not sure of, asking me to kill a man I do not know. So I say to you this: I'll give him an offer that he cannot refuse." His voice returned to normal. "But I have two conditions."

"What?" asked Kagome.

Spidey held up his finger. "I'm in, so long as we don't have to hold hands and sing 'We're Off to See the Wizard' while skipping down the Yellow Brick Road."

Kagome laughed. "I don't think you'll have to worry about that. What's the other condition?"

"The other condition is . . ."

"Enough of this idiot!" Inuyasha cut him off in a rage. He got to his feet, his hands balled into fists, ready to strike Spider-Man.

"SIT!" Kagome chastised him. Like always, Inuyasha's face smashed into the floor because of the enchanted beads around his neck.

Spider-Man pointed his thumb at the reprimanded Inuyasha. "You never teach my wife how to do _that_."

Kagome snapped back to her usually cheery self. "Done!" She held out her hand.

Spidey took her hand and shook it. "Pleasure's all mine, miss. Now all we have left to do is draw up the actual contract. Then we cross the t's and dot the . . ." He took a quick look over at Kaede and, seeing her eye patch, decided against what he was about to say. " . . . lower-case j's . . . You know what, forget the contract; we're good."

Inuyasha stood up. "Why do we have to bring this idiot along? He'll be totally useless to us in battle! All he does is make jokes!"

"Says the guy whose butt I kicked but an hour ago," said Spider-Man nonchalantly.

"You wanna go right now?!" Inuyasha barked. "You just caught me off guard!"

"I could put you in your place anytime, anywhere, Junior," Spidey replied. "And boy, do you ever need that."

Inuyasha got in Spidey's face. "What was that, you little insect?"

"Okay, first of all, spiders are arachnids, not insects, you doofus. And secondly . . ."

"Will you two knock it off?" Kagome tried to break them up. "Inuyasha, he could really help us out, you know. He is pretty strong."

"And agile," Spidey added.

"And agile," Kagome corrected herself.

"And awesome," Spidey added again.

"Don't push it," she warned.

"Yes, ma'am." That shut him up.

"He's still a clown; we don't need that," Inuyasha argued.

"Oh come on, Inuyasha," Kagome said kindly. "I like him. He's funny."

"I agree with Kagome," said Miroku. "And happen to think that with all the things we go through, we could use a laugh or two." Sango and Shippo both nodded in agreement.

"Wow. Praise for my razor-sharp comedic wit. That's a first," Spider-Man commented.

Inuyasha realized he had just lost yet another argument today. He snorted in compliance. "Fine, whatever."

"So, bygones, Inuyasha?" Spider-Man said while holding out his hand in friendship. Inuyasha simply grunted.

"That's about the most you're gonna get outta him," said Shippo.

Spider-Man just shrugged. "Now that's settled, if you don't mind, Kagome, I still have one more question."

"What is it?" replied Kagome.

"The Beyonder very briefly mentioned your sorrows to me, and I truly am sorry for you and I'll do whatever I can to help, but he also said that the 'ones who pursue this demon,' as he put it, refused to cooperate with each other," Spidey explained. "Thing is, you lot seem to get along just fine to me," he looked over to Inuyasha, "albeit with a few quirks, so what exactly was he talking about?"

Kagome thought for a minute. "I'm not really sure."

Kaede spoke up. "All things will be revealed in time. But I believe ye best make haste. Ye still have plenty of daylight left today and much ground to cover."

"You're right, Lady Kaede," said Kagome. "Let's go, everyone!"

"Be safe, children," said Kaede.

Everyone gathered their things, thanked Kaede once more, and proceeded to leave the hut. They walked toward the edge of the village and were about to leave it entirely when Inuyasha suddenly stopped and started to pout.

"Aren't we forgetting something?" he said impatiently while tapping his foot on the ground.

"I don't know. Are we?" Kagome answered him.

"My sword!" he shouted. He pointed to his Tetsusaiga, which was still stuck in the tree to his immediate right. By now, Spider-Man's webbing had completely dissolved.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that, Bro," apologized Spidey. "Let me get that for ya." In a single leap, he reached the Tetsusaiga at the highest branches from a standing position next to the others, a distance of a good one-hundred feet.

"Wow, he really is strong," said Sango in awe.

"Indeed," agreed Miroku.

Spider-Man pried the sword out of the tree with little effort. He held it at arms length and examined it with both his eyes and hands. It looked and felt like nothing more than a rusted old piece of crap with the sharpness of a herring. How on earth did Inuyasha get it to turn into that massive blade from before?

"What are you waiting for?" called Inuyasha.

"Hold your horses, Slick. I wanna try something first," Spidey said to him.

He leapt off the tree and landed next to Inuyasha. He then held the sword high up in his right hand.

"I HAVE THE POWER!!!!!" Spider-Man shouted to the heavens.

Everyone stood silent in embarrassment. Spidey just stood there stupidly, still holding the sword. After a few seconds, he looked around. He turned toward Inuyasha.

"Anything?" he asked.

Inuyasha just shook his head. Spider-Man looked back at the sword; it still looked the same as before. He shrugged.

"Huh. It worked for He-Man. Ah well, whatever. Here ya go, Slick." He casually tossed the sword back to Inuyasha, who promptly sheathed it.

"Can we go now?" called a slightly irritated Kagome.

"Oh yeah, right," Inuyasha and Spider-Man said in tandem as they hurried back to the others.

With that, the group set back out on their journey to gather the shards of the Shikon Jewel and defeat the evil demon Naraku with their new companion, the amazing Spider-Man!


	6. Getting to Know You

**The Fang and the Web**

Chapter 6: Getting to Know You

Inuyasha, Kagome, and the others had been walking for some hours after they left Kaede's village. It was late in the day by now, the group having lost a lot of travel time due to the day's previous events. Kagome had opted to walk along with her bike and talk with Sango, who was walking next to her with Kirara on her shoulder. Shippo was hitching a ride in the basket of Kagome's bike. Miroku was lagging just behind Sango, trying to find that ever-elusive spot where she was within arms length of him, yet he was still well outside her strike zone. Inuyasha was far ahead of the rest of the group, arms folded inside his robe, and an irritated look on his face. The group's newfound superhuman companion, however, had opted for another form of travel.

A human-shaped shadow passed over Inuyasha's head again. The veins in his head were beginning to pop, as his patience with the newcomer's rather unique and, in Inuyasha's opinion, annoying, method of transportation wore thin. As the shadow appeared again, Inuyasha had apparently had enough.

"Just what are you doing up there, anyway?!" he shouted. "Swinging through the trees?"

Spider-Man slowed down his current swing arc just enough to deliver a reply. "Nope, I'm pretending I'm Tarzan of the jungle. Here's your sign."

"What sign?"

Spidey sighed and hung upside down on the web line he was holding. He turned to Kagome, who was just coming up to him. "Sharp as a tack, this one is," he said sarcastically.

Kagome just sighed and kept walking. "Tell me about it.

Inuyasha came up to Spider-Man. "Why can't you just walk like a normal person?"

"Probably for the same reason you don't wear shoes, Frodo; it's just not my thing."

Inuyasha looked down at his bare feet, snorted, and walked off. Spider-Man figured he had better avoid another fight with Inuyasha and decided to humor him by walking from then on. After a bit, Inuyasha's nasty mood faded as easily as it had come. His tone of voice became somewhat softer with his next question.

"So, just what are you, exactly?" he asked Spider-Man.

"Beg pardon?"

Inuyasha scratched his head. "Like, what is it about you that makes you strong like that?"

Spidey raised an eyebrow underneath his full-face mask. "I could ask the same thing of you, pal."

"Huh?"

"What are _you_? You're obviously not human." He pointed to Inuyasha's ears. "And I've been suppressing an urge to touch those things for hours."

Inuyasha squinted his eyes in slight annoyance. "Actually, I'm a . . . um . . ."

"He's a half-demon," Kagome answered for him.

"Oh, ok . . . wait, what?" Spider-Man double taked. "Like that Naraku guy?"

"I'm nothing like him!" Inuyasha bellowed.

"Whoa, buddy. I didn't mean anything by it," Spider-Man defended.

"Inuyasha, calm down," said Kagome coolly. She turned back to Spidey. "He's a natural born half-demon."

"Natural born?" Spidey repeated.

"Yeah. His mother was a human and his father was a demon," Kagome explained.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha shouted.

"Inuyasha, what's the big deal? There's nothing wrong with that, you know," Kagome replied.

Inuyasha blushed a little and rubbed the back of his head. "Really?"

"Yeah, man. No biggie," Spider-Man agreed. "Honestly, I thought you were a mutant."

Inuyasha straightened up. "A mutant? What's that?"

"Millions of mutants exist in my and Kagome's era. They're humans born with special powers due to random irregularities in their genetic code," Spidey explained. When he saw confused looks of their faces, he added, "Don't worry about it right now; I'm sure you'll learn about them eventually."

"It is true though, you know," Kagome added. "I've heard stories about some of them on the news every now and then."

"Then why didn't you ever tell us about them?" Inuyasha asked. "I mean, humans with powers like that?"

"Honestly, it didn't really ever occur to me; it just didn't seem like something you needed to know," Kagome replied.

Spidey thought to himself for a moment. "Come to think of it, I'm good friends with a couple of mutants who are quite familiar with this part of the world."

"Oh really? Who are they?" asked Kagome.

"Their mutant codenames are Wolverine and Shadowcat. They're members of a whole team of mutant superheroes called the X-Men," Spidey explained.

"The X-Men?" repeated Inuyasha.

"Yep. And if your luck is anything like mine, I'm sure you'll meet them all someday," Spidey said.

"Wow. Humans with powers in the future. Who would have known?" wondered Miroku aloud.

"So, are you a mutant then?" Inuyasha asked Spider-Man.

"Oh, me? No, no I'm not a mutant," he answered. "Mutants are born with their powers. I got mine much later."

"Then how did you get your powers?" asked Kagome nicely.

"That's a story for another day, kid." He turned back to Inuyasha. "But let me ask you this: what kind of demon has fluffy white ears?"

"A dog demon," Kagome answered for him.

"Oh reeeeheeeheeeealllllly?" Spidey said as he stroked his chin. "Oh, I'm gonna have fun with this one."

Inuyasha's ears stiffened and he gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to like this. Before Inuyasha could start another fight, Kagome intervened.

"You know, we missed lunch today with all that happened," she said. "And I brought some for everyone, too. We could have an early dinner now before it gets dark."

Inuyasha snorted. "Forget it. We don't have time to stop; we have to get as far as we can before nightfall."

Miroku spoke up. "Actually Inuyasha, I agree with Kagome. Besides, you of all people should want to replenish your strength, considering what tonight is."

"What?!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "Is it that time of the month already?!"

"Of course it is. You haven't been keeping track?" said Sango.

Spider-Man felt left out of the loop. "Did he just say 'that time of the month?' He's not talking about . . ."

"No! Nothing like that!" Kagome cut him off. "It's just a . . . a half-demon . . . thing." Spidey cocked an eyebrow and the eyepieces on his mask followed suit. "Look, I'll explain later, okay?" Kagome said in a finalizing manner.

Spidey shrugged his shoulders. "Suit yourself, I'm easy."

Kagome figured this was starting to get a little tense and awkward, so she quickly thought of a distraction. "Hey, why don't we just find a nice spot over there and call it day? We could eat an early dinner and get a good night's sleep. What do you say?"

"Good idea, Kagome," said Sango. Miroku nodded in approval. Kirara purred to show her agreement.

"Yeah!" cried Shippo. He liked any idea that had to do with food.

"Sounds good to me," said Spider-Man.

"How 'bout you, Inuyasha?" Kagome waited for his response.

"Absolutely not! We need to cover as much ground as possible!" he growled.

Spider-Man folded his arms. "Do you always disagree with her on principle, or is it just a force of habit?"

"Well . . . I . . . uh . . ." Inuyasha stuttered as he realized he was caught.

Kagome got tired of putting up with him for the day. "Forget it, Inuyasha. We're going to find a good spot to set up camp and have a nice meal. If you want to join us, you are more than welcome to. Your choice." With that, she and the others turned in another direction and proceeded on.

"But . . ." Inuyasha started to protest again.

"Forget it, man," Spider-Man called back. "The tribe has spoken."

Griping and grumbling, Inuyasha trudged after the others out of the forest. They eventually settled on a quaint little spot between the forest itself and the banks of a small river. Kagome got a picnic blanket out of her backpack and laid it down underneath a large tree for everyone to sit on. She then started to dig through her backpack, searching for the lunches she packed. All of them were contained in small black boxes made of hard plastic. As she extracted them, she passed them out to Miroku, Sango, and so on.

"Seriously, Kagome, that's a very nice gesture, but you don't really need to worry about me, really," Spider-Man said as he watched everyone else.

As she got out the last lunch for herself, she said, "I'm sorry, Spider-Man, but since I had no idea that you were going to be with us, I didn't even think to pack an extra . . . hold on a second." She shifted some of her things over in her pack. "I take that back; we're in luck. It seems that my mother packed an extra lunch in here."

Spidey held up his hands. "No, really. I couldn't."

Still, Kagome handed it to him. "Please, I insist. It's the least I can do after that incident earlier today."

"I said not to worry about that. But, if you insist, I will graciously accept your hospitality. Thank you," he said as he took it.

"You're welcome," she said. "Now that I think of it, I'm not really sure why she would pack an extra lunch. Then again, she always says 'chance always favors the prepared.'"

"Well then, I owe her my thanks as well," Spidey added.

Kagome smiled. She was quite impressed with Spider-Man. Underneath his quirkiness, he was quite a gentleman.

Sango sat down on one end of the picnic blanket, and Miroku sat beside her. Kagome sat on the end of the blanket opposite Sango, up against the tree. Spider-Man sat down against the tree next to Kagome, lifting the bottom half of his mask as he did so he could eat. Shippo sat on Kagome's other side. Inuyasha took a seat on the side of the blanket to Kagome's left, adjacent to Shippo.

"Everybody dig in!" Kagome said cheerily.

Everyone opened their lunchboxes, took out a pair of chopsticks, and started to eat. Spidey opened his lunch box. In it were a few rice balls, mini wiener dogs cut in the shape of an octopus, some sushi, and some other Japanese cuisine he wasn't familiar with. "Looks good. But one thing."

"What?" Kagome asked, putting down her chopsticks. He didn't hate her cooking, did he?

"You wouldn't happen to have a fork in there, would you?" he said, pointing to her backpack. "I never really could get the hang of those confounded chopsticks whenever I ordered out Oriental."

"Oh, that," said a relieved Kagome. "Um, I doubt it, but let me check." She rummaged through her things for a second. "Huh. How 'bout that?" she said from inside her backpack. She pulled out a single set of silverware: a spoon, a fork, and a knife. "Turns out my mom also packed just one set of silverware." She handed them to Spider-Man, who thanked her before taking them. "Weird, huh?"

Miroku swallowed a mouthful of food. "Indeed. That is a strange coincidence."

Spidey took a bite of one of his rice balls. "_That_, my friend, is what we call _deus ex machina_."

"What?" asked Miroku.

"Never mind."

After a few bites of food, Spider-Man started up a conversation with Kagome. "So Kagome, this 'Shikon Jewel' is it? The broken one that you're all looking for the pieces of? Do you have any shards of it already?"

"Yeah, we've had some real adventures trying to get all the shards," she said. "But we also had quite a few problems along the way, to say the least. After all that has happened, I currently have three shards. Would you like to see them?"

"If you don't mind."

"Sure," she complied. Inuyasha gave a grunt of disapproval, but Kagome shot him a quick nasty look, and he instantly dropped the issue.

Kagome set her food down and reached inside her blouse. She pulled out a small bottle, attached to a chain around her neck, with three small purple jewel shards inside it. She handed the bottle to Spider-Man, who took it with caution. The moment Kagome had revealed the jewel shards inside the bottle, Spider-Man got that all-too familiar buzzing sensation in the back of his skull.

_That's strange_, Spidey thought to himself as he eyed the shards. _Why are these things making my spider-sense tingle? I'd better remember that feeling in case I ever have to track these things down_. He thanked Kagome and handed the bottle back to her. Kagome put it back around her neck and tucked the bottle back inside her blouse.

As Spider-Man sat there, he began to think of the magnitude of this mission. Looking all over Japan for tiny little shards like that, plus defeating a super-powerful evil demon on top of that. This was going to take forever! What about his life in his own time and home? How was he going to get back to Mary Jane, and when? Actually, now that he thought about it, he didn't exactly now the specifics of this kind of time travel. Maybe, just maybe, he could return to his own time at the same moment, like he had never left. He needed to get that squared away so he could start to make sense of this whole thing. "While, I'm thinking of it," he said to Kagome, "how exactly does that well of yours work anyway?"

"Like what do you mean?"

"Well, does time pass between these eras, or what?"

"Oh, oh that. Well, time does move forward while we're in this era."

"Really?"

"Yeah, like if we left our era on a Friday and stayed here for a day, and then went back, it would be Saturday back in our era," Kagome explained as best she could.

Spidey hung his head. "Aw crap. My wife is gonna kill me."

"_You're_ married?" said a far-too-surprised Sango.

Spidey looked up at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, um, nothing," she quickly dropped the issue.

By now, Inuyasha was the only one who hadn't touched his food. All he done up to this point was sniff it, as if trying to figure out what it was spiked with. "What is this crap?" he barked. With that comment, the nerves in Kagome's forehead began to show, but Inuyasha didn't seem to notice. He grabbed her backpack and started throwing things out of it while looking for something. "Do you have that instant ramen I like?" he said from inside it. After a minute, he pulled out a cup of instant ramen. All the while, Kagome was getting more and more angry. "Boil me up some water, will you, Kagome?" he asked.

"Oh boy," thought Spidey. "Here it comes again."

"SIT!"

Wham! Inuyasha face planted yet again that day. Apparently, he was going to not only break his old record, but shatter it entirely. It was like he was shooting for his seventieth homerun when the record was only sixty-one.

Spidey leaned over a twitching Inuyasha-shaped road bump. "Does dirt really taste that good? 'Cause you sure do seem to like eating it."

All he got for a response was a muffled "Shut up." Inuyasha stood up, dusted himself off, and grabbed his instant ramen cup. "Whatever. I'll do it myself." He dug out a small portable propane stove from Kagome's pack and took it far away from everyone else.

When Inuyasha was out of hearing range, Kagome sighed. "Honestly, I don't know what to do with him sometimes."

Spidey took another bite of sushi. "Just say the word, and I'll put in a call to Bob Barker. That oughta fix 'em . . . if you know what I mean."

Kagome almost choked on whatever she was eating from laughing at Spider-Man's half-serious solution to her Inuyasha-based problems. Sango and Miroku failed to see the humor, but they were pretty much used to not understanding what Spider-Man was saying half the time.

Kagome quickly gathered herself after her short fit of laughter. "Seriously though. He's almost always rude, and mean, and inconsiderate."

"You still like him though," Spidey observed. "A lot."

Kagome got on the defensive faster than a French infantryman. "No I don't! I mean, whatever gave you that idea?" she said quickly while blushing heavily.

"Please, Kagome," Spider-Man said. "You can't hide anything from me. Mind-reading is yet another one of my spectacular superpowers."

Kagome looked up. "Really?"

"No," he answered truthfully. "But it is written all over your face."

Kagome started playing with her fingers while keeping her still-heavily red face out of sight. "Well, he does have some times when he is kind, even caring, you know? I know he really is a good person on the inside."

"I figured as much," said Spidey casually. "He'd have to be, for you to put up with him the way you do."

"Yeah, I guess," Kagome admitted. "He's still a jerk, though."  
"Oh, amen to that, sister," Spidey agreed.

"I agree with Kagome," said Miroku offhandedly. As he did so, his right arm slid ever so slowly down Sango's back. "His actions give all us men a bad name, and moreover . . ."

At that moment, Miroku's "cursed" hand found that certain spot. The next moment, "Pervert!" Sango cried as she smacked him in the face. As Miroku rubbed the hand-shaped red mark on his cheek, Sango moved over beside Kagome.

Spider-Man just stared at Miroku; he couldn't actually believe what he just did. "Did he just . . . ?"

"Yep," Kagome answered while still eating.

"Does he always . . . ?"

"Oh yeah, but not only to just Sango, but every young woman he meets."

"The miserable lecher," Sango spat. "He just won't stop doing that."

Kagome leaned over to Spider-Man and whispered to him. "He claims it's a curse, like it's a weakness or something that he can't overcome."

Spidey whispered back. "Well, in that case, we'd better not tell him about Jennifer Lopez."

Again, Kagome nearly choked on what she was eating from laughing, but she quickly recovered. Sango and Miroku stared at Kagome and Spider-Man, wondering what they had just talked about. Kagome caught a glimpse of their confused expressions and figured she had better change the subject before they asked what was so funny.

"But, you know what, I'm not sure that Inuyasha even likes me," Kagome sighed.

"Oh really? What makes you say that?" Spidey asked.

Kagome began to fidget a little. "I've never really told anyone this before . . ."

"You don't have to if you don't want to, you know," he consoled.

"No, no, it's just that . . . oh, I don't know . . ."

Spidey raised an eyebrow under his mask. Seeing her like that reminded him of what he was like at that age. The nervousness, the overwhelming shyness, he had all the typical symptoms of a teenager, only far worse than everyone else, including her.

"Well, it's just that Inuyasha and Kikyo were together so long ago. Sometimes I think that when he looks at me, all he sees is her. Like he can't forget her, and there's no room in his heart for me. I mean, I'm only the reincarnation of Kikyo, but I'm still my own person, and Inuyasha will only love her," Kagome spilled her guts to Spider-Man, so quickly that he almost missed some of it. "Wow. I've never had the courage to say that to anyone before," she said with a smile. "You're really easy to talk to, Spider-Man."

"Don't mention it, Kagome," Spidey replied. "Now, let me see," he thought aloud, stroking an imaginary beard on his chin. "I get it; you're just like 'Star Trek: The Next Generation.'"

"Exactly . . . wait, what?" Kagome did a confused double take.

"'Star Trek: The Next Generation,'" Spidey repeated himself. "You know, with Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard." When all he got from Kagome was a look of complete and utter bewilderment, he figured he'd better explain himself. "Ah, TNG, in a lot of ways it is far superior to its predecessor, but it will never be as recognized as the original." He sighed to himself, reveling in his own geekiness.

"Uh, thanks . . . ?" said a somewhat comforted, but still confused, Kagome.

"But you know, I'm still not sold on this whole 'reincarnation' thing. That you being the recycled version of some dead chick. I just don't believe it."

"Why not?" asked Miroku, with that red mark still on his face. "This kind of spiritual faith is well-known in this part of the world."

"Yeah, but I'm from America, Slick. The closest thing we have to reincarnation is 'Quantum Leap.'"

"Perhaps, but we have bigger things to worry about now," said Kagome, trying to change the subject.

Spider-Man looked at his wrist. "Indeed. If I will be unable to return to our own time, I had better be more conservative with my webbing since I can't make more."

"What are you talking about?" asked Miroku.

Spider-Man set down his food so he had his hands free. Then he held out his right arm, pulled the sleeve back, and removed the glove covering his hand, revealing a mechanical device wrapped around his wrist. "This," he said, "is my trusty, and patented, web-shooter. It's what's been firing my trademark webs."

Kagome, Sango, Shippo, and Miroku all leaned in to get a closer look. Around Spider-Man's wrist was a most peculiar device. It was slick and cylindrical, fitting perfectly around his wrist. Many small cartridges were linked around the body of the device. A single, flat bar extended out of the apparatus and ran into his palm, ending in a quarter-sized trigger mechanism. Just above the bar was a thin nozzle, from which his webbing emerged.

"It's an ingenious design, really, if I do say so myself," Spidey said while smirking. "I first dreamed up these babies back when I was still in high school. Man, that was a long time ago."

"So, how do they work?" asked Kagome.

"Glad you asked, Kagome. See, the key to the mechanism is this here trigger." He pointed to the quarter-sized apparatus in his palm. "I designed it to activate only when pressed twice in quick succession, so I don't accidentally set it off if I ever, say, make a fist or grab something. It works a lot like a computer mouse."

"A what kind of mouse?" said a confused Sango.

"It's a future thing," Kagome waived off Sango's question. She turned back toward Spider-Man. "Continue."

"Well, I made my webbing myself in my high school science lab. It's actually derived from a special fluid made from a multipolymer compound of my own design." He looked around and saw confused faces all around. "And I can see that particular series of words meant nothing to you. Anyway, my web fluid is actually almost solid in its natural state. A spinneret mechanism inside the nozzle cuts it into thin strands when I activate the trigger. The pressure inside the cartridges is strong enough to send a single strand about fifty or so feet. Of course, the thicker ones can't go nearly that far. Each one of these cartridges holds about a thousand feet of single-strand webbing.

"Depending on how I press the trigger the second time, the nozzle here produces the webbing in different ways. If the second tap is short, it makes a thin, cable-like strand, perfect for web-swinging. A longer second tap increases the strand's thickness for additional support, good for holding heavy things up, or hogtieing a bad guy. If I prolong the pressure on the trigger, the web fluid comes out in the form of an adhesive liquid that can paste a foe against a wall. A series of brisk taps discharges many thin strands that form a fine spray of webbing, which I usually use to blind my enemies.

"The natural strength of my webbing and its ability to harden quickly allows me to form it into lots of simple shapes. I've made bats, balls, bolos, and all kinds of good stuff. I can also mold the stuff into more complex shapes like hang-gliders, rafts, skis, trampolines, wings, things like that. I soon learned that anything longer than twenty feet long tend to lose their structural integrity real quick-like. And the thicker the webbing, the faster it disintegrates. Plus, it's capable of withstanding temperatures of up to a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. And FYI, that's really hot."

"Fascinating," said Miroku in awe. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Oh, there's more," said Spidey. He turned is wrist, and web-shooter, to the side to show them the rest of it. "These are spare web cartridges I keep on the shooter itself. It can hold up to ten. The rest . . ." He lifted the very bottom of his shirt to show them his utility belt. "I keep on this belt in case of emergencies. I also keep a miniature camera and my spider signal," he said while pointing them out.

"'Spider signal?' What's that?" asked Kagome.

"Basically just a flashlight with my face on it," Spidey answered. "I've offered to make the NYPD a really big one to put on top of their headquarters to use if they ever need me, but they keep telling me that's a dumb idea."

"Wow, that really is something," remarked Sango.

"Yeah, it really is," said Kagome. She sighed, looking at the mess that Inuyasha had left on the picnic blanket from when he rummaged through her backpack. Her clothes, personal items, books, everything was everywhere. "But right now, I  
really need to clean this up."

"Oh, let me help you with that," Spidey offered.

"Thank you."

Spidey started gathering Kagome's things for her. Out of courtesy, he tried to avoid some of her more personal possessions. He picked up one of her school textbooks, Introduction to Chemistry. He opened it and started to scan the pages.

"Hmmm. This is pretty basic stuff. Elementary, actually. Alkalis, actinides, thermodynamics, nuclear forces. Wow, it's been a long time since I had to do this kind of stuff back when I was in school."

Kagome noticed that Spider-Man was reading one of her textbooks. "You can read Japanese too?" she said surprised.

"Evidently," he replied with his nose still in the book. "It still looks like English to me, though."

"And you understand all that scientific mumbo jumbo?"

He looked up. "Well, at least the mumbo part. I'm not so hot on the jumbo. What are you doing with these things anyway?" He closed the book and handed it to her.

Kagome put away some of her things in her backpack. "Oh, I'm falling behind in school again. I don't know what I'm gonna do anymore. The high school entrance exams are coming up soon, and at the rate I'm going, I'm gonna fail them for sure."

"High school _entrance_ exams? Dang."

"Don't get me started."

"I could help you out if you want," Spidey offered.

Kagome suddenly straightened up and beamed a smile and Spidey. "Really? You'd do that for me?"

"Of course. You're in luck, because it just so happens that my mild-mannered alter ego is a high school teacher back in the modern United States. I know that pretty much equates to a kindergarten teacher here in Japan, but I'll do what I can."

Kagome clapped her hands together. "Thank you so much!"

"But that'll have to wait until later," Spidey said as he put the last of Kagome's things in her backpack.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because right now, someone else needs your help."

"Huh?"

Spider-Man pointed over to his right. Kagome followed his finger to see Inuyasha about twenty yards out, still messing with her portable stove, trying to boil some water for his instant ramen noodles. Kagome sighed and got up to go help him. When she got over there, Spidey was still able to hear what they were saying.

"Oh, Inuyasha, you're so hopeless."

"Well, uh . . ."

"Here, let me help you."

"Oh, uh . . . ok . . . Kagome?"

"Yes?"

"Um . . . never mind."

Spidey chuckled to himself as he reminisced about his own awkward teenage years. "Heh heh. Kids." He jabbed his fork into the last one of his little wiener dogs that was cut in the shape of an octopus. He brought it up to his face and looked at it, studying it. It brought to mind a certain someone in his life. He chuckled to himself at the thought. "Heh heh. You know I get a rather bizarre, yet ultimately satisfying pleasure from eating this."

"Oh really? Like what?" asked Miroku.

"Ah, don't worry about it," replied Spidey, shrugging. "It's not like _you'll_ ever meet him." With that, Spidey took a bite out of the wiener dog and chewed it with a smile on his face.

After dinner, everyone cleaned up their meal boxes and set up camp for the night. Inuyasha had gathered some wood for a fire while Kagome had pulled out her sleeping bag. After everyone had organized everything and had it set up the way it was supposed to be, they did what they could to pass what little daylight was left. Kagome brought out a deck of playing cards and they played a game of Old Maid, having taught the others how to play it some time ago. Spider-Man insisted he teach them all how to play Texas Hold 'Em for keeps, but Kagome quickly put a stop to that. By the time the card game was over, the sun had all but set. Kagome suggested that she had put her studying off for long enough and that she should get to work. As per his earlier promise, Spidey offered to help. Shippo took to watching Kagome and Spidey work, and getting a massive headache from not understanding anything. Sango had taken to polishing her weapon with Kirara, and Miroku, keeping in mind that she was probably still miffed about his last pass at her, decided to just meditate a considerable distance away from her. Inuyasha, however, was nowhere to be found.

"So you see," Spidey explained Kagome's homework to her, "in accordance with the Law of Conservation of Mass, matter cannot be created nor destroyed, at least not by normal chemical reactions like these. So, the number of atoms on either side of these chemical reaction equations must be the same."

"Okay, but the subscript numbers don't add up that way."

"True, but you can add a coefficient to this molecule and control the total number of atoms that way. After all, the number of molecules used doesn't matter as long as the grand total of each kind of atoms are the same on both sides. When you think about it, when reactions like this occur in real life, billions of molecules are actually involved."

"Hey, I get it now! Thanks! You're a great teacher, you know that?"

"Oh yeah. I just wish my students did."

Kagome smiled. After helping her with her homework for a little bit longer, Spidey noticed something was amiss. "Hey, where's Scooby-Doo?"

"You mean Inuyasha?" Kagome replied. "Hmm . . . I don't know. He was here a while ago."

Just then, Spidey heard a rustle in the bushes behind them. His spider-sense wasn't tingling, so whatever it was, it wasn't a threat. A figure appeared from the shadows, but Spidey could quite make it out. It did look somewhat familiar, though.

Inuyasha's voice called out to them. "It's me; I'm here."

The figure stepped forward. A surprised Spider-Man saw that it was indeed Inuyasha. Well, sort of, at least. For some reason, he looked way different from before. His eyes were no longer yellow, but a regular brown. His silvery-colored hair had become black. His fangs and claws were gone. To cap it all, the dog-ears on top of his head had vanished, and he now had normal ears on the sides of his head. By all accounts, he appeared to be a normal, run-of-the-mill, everyday human, not a superpowered half-demon at all. Spidey had no idea what was going on, and he just stared at Inuyasha.

After about ten seconds, Inuyasha got tired of it. "What are you staring at?!" he shouted.

"A physical transformation that puts Michael Jackson to shame," was Spider-Man's reply.

With the veins in his head popping, Inuyasha bit his tongue and sat next to Kagome. It was taking all of his willpower not to lash out at Spider-Man. He tried to relieve his anger by gripping his sword tightly. It wasn't working very well.

"Dude, seriously, what happened to you?" Spidey asked him.

Kagome answered for him. "Well, since Inuyasha is a half-demon, it means he is half-human too. Once a month, during the night of the new moon, he loses his demonic powers and becomes a human until sunrise."

"Wait wait wait wait," Spidey said. "Let me get this straight. Every time the moon is a no-show, Underdog here turns into mild-mannered Shoe Shine Boy?"

Kagome giggled a little. "Yeah, that's about the size of it."

"You got a problem with that?" Inuyasha dared him to say something.

"Naw, bro. The Billy Ray Cyrus mullet looks good on ya," Spidey waived it off while stifling a laugh.

Inuyasha growled. "I hate this. This night of human weakness and anything with a reason to kill me easily could. And on top of that, this moron is just another person who knows my secret."

Kagome looked at Inuyasha with a mixture of kindness and tiredness. "It's like I've told you before, Inuyasha," she said. "This only proves that you have more friends than before."

"Yeah, dude," Spidey confirmed. "Lighten up. If you were any stiffer, you'd be dead."

Inuyasha snorted. "At least I'm getting this stupid powerless night out of the way now, before we continue looking for Naraku and the jewel shards I mean."

Kagome closed her textbook with a slam, followed by a tired yawn. "Well, I think that's enough for today. I think we should all turn in for the night."

"I second that," Spidey agreed. "So to you all, I bid a good night." With that, he hopped up into the tree they were all sitting under and made himself as comfortable as he could get on one of the larger branches.

Kagome called up to him. "Are you sure you wanna sleep up there?"

"Yeah, I'm good, thanks," Spidey replied without turning his head. "I'd rather sleep in a high place. It reminds me more of home, you know?"

"Well, with the skyscrapers, I guess it would a little," she relented.

Inuyasha started climbing up the tree himself. Of course, since he had lost his half-demon powers for the night, he was doing it the hard way, branch by branch. "I agree with the moron for once," he said, grunted as he pulled himself up on a branch. "I always did like sleeping in trees better than on the ground." He finally settled on a large branch level with and adjacent to the one Spider-Man was resting on.

"Yeah, thanks, you old stick-in-the-mud," Spidey said.

"Should I take the first watch shift before I go to sleep?" Inuyasha asked. He was always more cautious on his "normal" nights than the others. To him, being a vulnerable human was a liability that made him weak and susceptible to attack when he was off-guard.

"Maybe I should go first," suggested Miroku.

"Naw, don't worry about it; I got it covered," said Spidey, who by now had already shut his eyes.

"You'll take the first watch?" asked Miroku.

"No."

"Then what . . . ?"

"We'll be fine," Spidey assured. "Trust me. I got a way of telling when something bad is about to happen. Let's just call it a built-in danger detector that's always on, even when I'm asleep."

"What are you talking about?" Inuyasha grunted.

"I already explained one of my special abilities in excruciating detail today. I'd rather not do another. Maybe tomorrow," Spidey brushed off the question.

"And how can we believe that?" Inuyasha protested.

Spidey leaned in Inuyasha's direction. "Have I ever given you a reason not to trust me?"

"We've only known you for a day," Inuyasha argued bluntly.

Spidey thought about that for a second. "Touché. But still. It has felt like longer, though."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Yeah, it kinda has."

Kagome interjected. "I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, we're all tired right now and we all could use some sleep."

"Yeah, I got a feeling that something is gonna go down tomorrow, so we need the rest," Spidey agreed.

"What makes you say that?" Kagome asked as she got into her sleeping bag.

"Years of experience, my dear," Spidey answered. "But at any rate, don't worry about it just yet."

"Oh, alright," Kagome consented.

Everyone in the group got into their sleeping arrangements and made themselves comfortable.

"Good night, everyone," said Kagome.

"Sleep tight," added Sango.

"Don't let the radioactive spiders bite," said Spider-Man,

When Kagome heard that, almost asked what he was talking about, but she decided against it and just closed her eyes; there had been enough talking and explanations for one day. She was sure she would find out about that later. Besides, judging from the heavy snoring that she was hearing, he was already fast asleep anyway.

"Oh well," she thought to herself, "tomorrow's another day."


	7. Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

**The Fang and the Web**

Chapter 7: Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

Peter Parker, alias the amazing Spider-Man, woke up the next morning to the sound of birds chirping and leaves rustling, definitely not something he was used to. He yawned and slowly sat up. He looked over to Inuyasha's branch to find that he wasn't there. He looked down and saw that Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Kirara, and Shippo were up already as well. Not only that, but also all of their things had already been organized and packed away. Scratching his head, he glanced toward the river and saw the lot of them roasting some fish over a fire. He noticed that Inuyasha had returned to his normal self, funky ears and all. He hopped down from the tree and strolled over to them.

"Dude, what time is it?" he said with another yawn.

Kagome checked her watch. "Like 7:30."

Spidey paused for a moment. "Come again? How long have of all of you been awake?"

"We rise with the dawn," stated Inuyasha bluntly.

"Early risers, huh?" Spidey stared at them for a minute. "Y'all are crazy."

Kagome tried to quickly change the subject before Inuyasha started yet another fight with Spider-Man. "Well, whatever. Breakfast?" She offered him a stick with grilled fish on it.

"Marine shish kabob in the morning for breakfast, huh? Eh, I'll bite. Thanks." He took it graciously.

Breakfast passed without much incident, from either the obnoxious crowd (Inuyasha) or the peanut gallery (Spider-Man). Afterward, everyone was preparing to continue with their journey.

"By the way," said Spidey as he put Kagome's backpack into the basket on her bike for her, "does anybody actually know where we're going exactly?"

"No, not really," answered Inuyasha.

Spidey slowly dragged his palm over his mask in an exasperated manner. "Great."

Miroku tried to clarify. "We usually just wander the country side until Kagome senses a jewel shard or we hear something about Naraku, and . . ."

"And making things right that once were wrong?"

"Well, yes."

Spidey shrugged. "At least you're heart's in the right place." He looked at Inuyasha. "Actually, yeah, I'll stick with that."

Kagome thought for a moment. "Actually, I think there is another village in that direction," she said while pointing north. "We might have passed it before. I think."

"Eh, it's a start."

"If I remember right, it's like a good thirty miles from here or so. At the end of this forest, there's a large grassy field between here and another forest. And then there's the village at the other end of that."

Spidey got an idea. "Oh, really?" he said while stroking his chin.

With the last of their preparations complete, the gang set out again on their quest. They had reached the edge of the forest within the hour. Before they kept going, Spider-Man stopped them.

"Hey, hold up a sec," he said. Everyone else halted and turned to face him.

"What now?" asked an irritated Inuyasha.

"How 'bout a race, you two?" Spidey suggested to Miroku and Inuyasha. "You know, to the next forest? It might liven things up around here."

"A race, huh?" thought Miroku aloud.

"Yeah," Spidey affirmed. "You, me, and Huckleberry Hound here."

Inuyasha's ears twitched at the insult. He never had any idea what Spider-Man's remarks about him meant, but he never liked the sound of them.

Spidey continued. "And Kagome can follow behind on her bike, and Sango can hitch a ride on Cheetara."

"Kirara," Sango corrected him with a slight grimace.

"What she said."

Kagome clapped her hands together. "Yeah, that sounds like fun. You should do it."

"Well, I don't like it," Inuyasha disagreed.

"Me neither," said Miroku. "It does sound kind of pointless."

Spidey, who had already begun stretching at this point, rolled his eyes under his mask. "What's the matter, Colonel Sanders? Chicken?"

Inuyasha stiffened. "Pardon?" he growled.

"We have a term for guys like you where I'm from," Spidey said very casually while still stretching. "Girlie men," Spidey spoke with a fake Austrian accent.

"And just what do you mean by that?" snarled an offended Sango.

Kagome giggled a little; she knew what Spidey meant, but evidently, Sango did not. She filled her in quietly and explained that Spider-Man meant no offense. Sango quieted down.

Inuyasha and Miroku, on the other hand, had moved past irritation, skipped anger, and went straight on to full out pissed. "Come again?" they both said icily.

"You heard me, you wusses," Spidey did the best he could to push their buttons. "You're afraid I'm gonna beat you in a footrace cause you're a couple of pansies."

"Oh, that's it!" Inuyasha shouted. "You're on!"

"I'm in, too!" Miroku cried. "We're finally going to put you in your place you arrogant moron!"

"Ooh, I'm quaking in my little spider-booties," Spidey taunted.

Both Kagome and Sango could barely contain their laughter from their little ego clash. Boys will always be boys, they assumed.

Shippo, who had been relatively silent until now, walked up to Spider-Man and tugged on his pant leg. "Hey, Spidey?" he asked.

Spidey looked down at the diminutive demon. "Whatcha need, squirt?"

"Could I maybe ride with you?" Shippo asked nicely.

"Sure thing, kid." He bent down, picked Shippo up, and put him on his shoulders. "Hold on."

"Yay!" Shippo cried.

Kagome smiled. Shippo rarely warmed up to somebody they had just met like that. Spider-Man truly was a kind man underneath all those snippy comments.

Impatient as always, Inuyasha tapped his foot on the ground. "Are we just gonna stand around all day, or are we gonna race?"

"Yeah, let's start already," Miroku agreed. He was showing impetuosity that was quite uncharacteristic of him. It must have been that crack at his masculinity.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Spidey said. "By all means, begin."

Inuyasha stared at him. "What?"

"Did I stutter? Go already," he waved them off with his hand. "I'm giving you a gracious one minute head start. I suggest you take it."

Both Inuyasha and Miroku gritted their teeth. "Your loss, idiot," spat Inuyasha. He and Miroku readied themselves for the contest.

"Yeah, ready, steady, go, and all that jazz," Spidey said lazily.

With that, Inuyasha and Miroku sprinted off across the grassy field as fast as their legs could carry them. Both were equally determined to shut Spider-Man up and beat him at his own game. Inuyasha had his demon speed to assist him, but surprisingly, Miroku could keep up with him quite easily.

"Hmm, they can move," Spidey commented while watching them slowly shrink into the distance.

"Why did you let them go first?" Shippo asked while still clinging to Spidey's shoulders.

"Don't worry about it. Check this."

Spider-Man held his arms outstretched, perpendicular to the rest of his body. He fired two web lines, each one attached to a somewhat distant tree on either side of him. He held onto the web line he just made and started to back up, effectively turning himself into a human slingshot. After he had backed up about twenty or so feet, he dug his feet into the dirt so he could hold his ground.

"Attention, passengers," Spidey said in manner imitating an airplane pilot's intercom. "Please keep your hands, arms, legs, and feet inside the craft at all times. Fasten your seatbelts, remain seated, and be ready to experience some turbulence. Thank you again for choosing Spidey Airlines, the only way to fly."

Shippo, practically grinning from ear to pointy ear, held on tight to Spider-Man's head so he wouldn't fall off during the oncoming flight. "Yeah! This is gonna be fun!"

"You know it, squirt."

Kagome mounted her bike so she was ready to follow them. "Don't you think giving them that head start was a bit rash? You know how their egos are," she said amusingly.

"Relax, ladies," Spidey assured them. "I'm about to teach your boyfriends a little lesson in humility."

The moment Spider-Man said the b-word, Sango and Kagome went on the defensive. "Hey! They're not our—"

"Count us down to takeoff, little man!" Spidey cut them off.

"Three, two, one . . ." Shippo counted.

"Blastoff!" Spidey cried.

He let go off the web line. The resulting tension from the web sent him and Shippo off like a bottle rocket. "Yeehaw!" they both shouted in excitement. They literally sailed through the air for what seemed like forever.

A bit further into the field, Inuyasha and Miroku were still going strong. Inuyasha saw a shadow pass over him. Miroku noticed it too.

"What on earth could that be?" Miroku said. "There's nothing here to cast a shadow."

Inuyasha looked up, and could not believe what he saw: Spider-Man and Shippo flying over him! "What the?!"

Spidey flew right over the two of them and hit the ground running full-speed. "You gotta watch out for them good 'ol Duke Boys!" he called back to them. Within seconds, Spider-Man's spider-speed carried him out of sight.

Inuyasha and Miroku were beyond furious now. They were not going to get schooled by this obnoxious punk if they could help it! Problem was, they couldn't help it; Spidey completely smoked them both. For the rest of the race, all twenty minutes of it, they failed to catch up to the wall-crawler. When they finally did reach him, completely out breath, he was just standing there in a laid-back manner, tapping his foot against the ground. Shippo was sitting on his shoulder with the smuggest look on his face he ever had.

"Tick-tock, fellas," Spidey said while holding out his left arm and pointing to an imaginary watch on his wrist. "You're late."

"Yeah," said Shippo with a grin so huge, it made him look like the Cheshire Cat. "Why are you so slow?"

"Oh, shut up," was all that Inuyasha could manage at the moment; he was too tired to smack the little brat right now.

Kagome soon came up on her bike and Sango ridding Kirara in her transformed state. "Was that as embarrassing to live as it was to watch?" Sango teased as she climbed off her pet demon cat. Kirara then reverted to her miniature form and settled herself on her master's shoulder.

Miroku just sighed. "Oh, give it a rest," he gasped. "Speaking of which . . ." With that, he fell flat on his back in the grass; he was completely drained for a while.

"Well, I'm fi . . ." Inuyasha started, but he too collapsed on the ground like a tree being knocked over.

Within seconds, both Inuyasha and Miroku were asleep, totally exhausted. Kagome laughed a bit. It was good, seeing the two of them like this for a change.

Spidey, on the other hand, still had nearly all of his strength with him. "Well, that's what you get for waking up at dawn."

Sango giggled a little. "Yes, I suppose so."

Shippo let out a yawn himself.

Kagome saw it. "Looks like you're tired again too." Shippo nodded. "Maybe we should try sleeping in once in a while. Well, Inuyasha and Miroku are already out cold, so why don't you go ahead and get a little shut-eye yourself?"

Shippo just nodded again. He made his way over to Kagome's bike and made himself comfortable in her basket. He was off to dreamland in little over two minutes.

Sango turned to Kirara, who had been pretty much silent until now. "Why don't you give yourself a breather, too?"

Kirara mewed with happiness. She went to over to Kagome's bike, where Shippo was already snoozing, and wrapped herself around him like a blanket. Shippo snuggled in a little closer, and the two of them peacefully slept like a child and his favorite stuffed animal.

"Well," said Kagome, "we can't go anywhere until the boys wake up from their little nap. Let's give them a little while, shall we?"

"Yes, let's," Sango agreed while still giggling.

They let Inuyasha and Miroku doze off for a bit. They leaned them up against a tree at the beginning of the next forest to take a small break themselves. Spider-Man let out a tired sigh; he may not have been completely exhausted like Inuyasha and Miroku, but he could use a break.

Kagome turned to Spider-Man. "That was really amazing that you could outrun the both of them like that," she said. "I've never seen anyone do that before. Well, maybe one, but . . ."

Spidey replied mid-sentence. "Well that's why they call me the 'amazing Spider-Man,' and not the 'average Spider-Man,' or the 'so-so Spider-Man.'"

"But it was still incredible that you could beat the two of them and hardly be tired afterward. How do you do that?" Sango asked.

"I just have really high stamina," Spidey explained. "I can move like that, even faster, actually, and recover after only a short rest. I'm already raring to go for another one." He looked at Inuyasha and Miroku. "And as you can see, they, however, are not."

"Did you say 'faster'?" Sango repeated in awe.

"Yeah. My top sprinting speed is somewhere between thirty and thirty-five miles per hour."

"Wow," said Kagome. Sango just raised an eyebrow; she had no idea what kind of measurements Spider-Man was using, but evidently, Kagome did.

"You think that's something? You should see me in a fight. I'm just a red-and-blue blur."

"We did see you in a fight," Sango pointed out. "Remember that skirmish we had when we first met?"

"Yeah, but the kid gloves where on then, small fry. I wasn't even trying."

Sango felt a slight twinge of annoyance at this, and his tone wasn't helping either. Still, she decided it was best to ignore it for now.

"Just how strong are you?" Kagome asked. She had been wondering this ever since they met.

"Well, they say that normal human beings have been known to lift cars in times of stress," Spidey replied.

"So?" Kagome wondered where he was going with this.

"I can press a couple of sedans on a good day. My lifting max is like ten, maybe twelve tons worth of weight." He lost himself in a personal reminisce for a while. "I remember, back in the day, when I would take my strength for granted in battles. I would toss five-hundred-pound barbells at my enemies like they were paperweights. Needless to say, they were pretty unnerved by that."

"No way!" Kagome gasped. "You've gotta be like the strongest guy around!"

Spidey chuckled a little bit. "I appreciate the flattery, kid, but not even close. I am by _no_ means the toughest hombre on the superhero block. Guys like the Thing, the Hulk, Thor, Colossus, heck, even Namor, all dwarf me in terms of raw power. Those steroid jockeys can all bench like a hundred tons each. Probably more."

"Get out! That's incredible!" Kagome squealed.

"In'it?" Spidey said. "Besides, you're kinda cuttin' Clifford the Big Red Dork here a might short." He jerked his head in Inuyasha's direction. "Back during our little wresting bout, it was a pretty even match." As an afterthought, he added, "Almost even. But not exact."

"Huh? No kidding," Kagome was somewhat taken aback by this. She didn't think Inuyasha was that strong. She knew he was tougher than most people, but she never would have thought he could pick up fully loaded dump truck.

"If you're not a strong as those guys, then how could you win a fight like that?" Sango asked.

"Ah, o ye of little faith, Sango. It's not always the general with the biggest naval fleet that wins, but the one with the fastest ships."

Both Sango and Kagome raised an eyebrow at him.

"What I mean is, that even though I routinely fight and beat the living snot out of guys that can easily kill me in one punch, like they were Samoan or something, none of 'em can match me in terms of agility or speed. Not even Olympic-level trained athletes like Daredevil or Elektra can best me in that regard."

"Oh really?" said Kagome.

"Really really," Spidey replied. "In a real fight, I can move so fast, my enemies are left dazzled and end up punching thin air. I've developed my own fighting style where I can take out a whole room of armed thugs in like thirty seconds without getting touched once. My personal agility is so great, I can balance on top of a pole at the highest point of a skyscraper with my finger and not even waiver. I instinctively know where to position my body in any situation to instantly achieve perfect equilibrium."

"That's astounding," muttered Kagome.

"Yeah, it is," said Sango. "Kinda makes me feel a little inadequate, being a normal human."

"Don't say that," Spidey assured her. "Normality is so . . . overrated. I haven't seen many 'regular humans' that can handle themselves in battle like you can. You're a regular Xena, you are. Why, I bet you can even—"

Spidey stopped short. It was back. That buzzing in the rear of his skull. His spider-sense was tingling! He looked behind him into the forest. Whatever had set it off, it was definitely coming from in there. It couldn't tell just how far off it was, but he did know that was close enough to be a threat. If he guessed right, it was probably someone, or something, that had one of those jewel shards that Kagome showed him earlier. This was danger imminent and he needed to take care of it now. Problem was, both Inuyasha and Miroku were still out cold; maybe challenging them to that race was a bad idea after all. And he wasn't going to put Kagome or Sango in the line of fire if he could help it. It looked like the web-slinger was going to be alone on this one. He decided he would handle it now before the others were in jeopardy.

Kagome had noticed Spidey stop and stare at the forest. "Is something wrong?" she asked, slightly frightened.

"Let's just say that I sense a disturbance in the Force," Spidey answered calmly. "I'll go check this out. You two keep an eye on them. I'll be back shortly." Without another word, Spider-Man fired a web line into the woods and swung off to engage this threat, leaving a bewildered Kagome and Sango behind.

-----------------------------------------

Deep in the forest, a twisting whirlwind blazed through the trees with astonishing speed. All manner of leaves and branches were caught in its wake. Even the mighty trees themselves bent after the miniature tornado passed. Then, the cyclone simply vanished as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind a most peculiar sight.

There was now what seemed to be a young man no older than fifteen in the spot the tornado had occupied just a moment before. Evidently, the twister itself was caused by the man's own incredible speed. He was somewhat taller than average, but not much. His long dark hair was done up in a ponytail behind his head. His solid blue eyes glared in the direction he had just come from, his patience fading from them with each passing moment. His mouth was construed in a small snarl, revealing his unusually large canine teeth. His elf-like pointed ears twitched in annoyance. Cracking the sharp claws on his fingers, he folded his arms in front of his chest, the fur-like arm guards he wore covering his solid black chest plate. He shifted his legs in wait, the sword at his waist quivering against the fur-like kilt he was wearing. His animalistic tail wagged slightly behind him. He tapped his foot on the ground with aggravation, the fur on his leg covers shaking with the movement. Whoever this person was, he was obviously waiting for something and he was not happy about it.

"Koga! Please wait!" called out a voice from further out.

"Hold on a minute!" another voice followed.

Koga, leader of the wolf demon tribe, sighed as his two companions pitifully dragged their feet through the dirt, trying to catch up with him. Their choice of attire was not unlike his own. One of them had his white hair in a large Mohawk, and the other had combed his gray hair back rather roughly. Their radically different hairstyles were essentially their only physical difference; they were the same height, the same build, and had the same large eyes. The two of them were shortly followed by a small pack of tired-looking wolves that promptly collapsed on the ground as soon as they came to a stop.

"Ginta! Hakkaku! What's taking you so long?" Koga barked at his subordinates.

"Sorry, boss," said the one with the Mohawk. "Ginta here had to keep the wolves from falling behind and I had to help him."

"That's a lie, Hakkaku!" yelled the other. "It was you who had to look after the wolves and I had to help _you_!"

"Save it!" shouted Koga, effectively shutting the both of them up. "I'm losing valuable time waiting for you slackers to catch up!" He turned to the tuckered out wolves. "And that goes for the lot of you too!"

"We said we're sorry, boss," argued Ginta. "But you're so fast, and hard to keep with . . ."

"Tell it to someone who cares," Koga waved off his complaint. "I've got to find Naraku as soon as possible and make him pay for what he did to our brethren!"

"Does that mean we can't even take a breather every now and then?" Hakkaku said. The glare he received from Koga made him drop the subject. "Er, sorry."

"Now, enough of your stupid chattering, we've got to get going and find Naraku so I can kill him."

"But—" the two of them started.

"What?!" Koga shouted.

"Can't we take a break?" they asked meekly.

"You just did!" Koga replied.

Ginta and Hakkaku looked like they were about to protest just once more in vain, when they suddenly stopped short. They just stared behind Koga, gaping at the sight behind their leader. Koga himself, however, failed to notice.

"That's more like it," he said. "Now let's get going." He turned around to come face to face with a red and blue colored man hanging upside down from a strand of spider's webbing, his large white eyes mere millimeters away from Koga's solid blue ones. "GAA!" Koga yelped, stumbling backward at the surprise. Luckily, Ginta and Hakkaku had enough of their wits still about them to catch him before he fell on the ground.

The odd-colored man spoke with a very lighthearted voice, full of amusement. "What's all the hubbub, bub?"

Koga was nearly speechless. "Wha? Who? How?" he stammered.

The man lowered himself from the web he was suspended from, chuckling slightly. "I guess that leaves just 'where' and 'when.'"

Koga stood up, regaining his composure, and threw off Ginta and Hakkaku, who were still supporting him. "Who are you?" he growled.

"Spider-Man's the name. Beatin' up bad guys is my game," was his answer. "And you are?"

"I'm Koga, leader of the wolf demon tribe!" he barked back.

"Yeah," said Hakkaku from behind Koga. "And we're—"

"These are Ginta and Hakkaku," Koga answered for them.

Spider-Man raised an eyebrow under his mask. "Right, okay so . . ." He pointed to Koga, "Moe," then to Ginta, "Larry," and finally to Hakkaku, "and Curly. Got it."

"What was that?" snapped Koga. He didn't know what those names he called them meant, but he didn't like it.

"Nothin'," Spidey brushed it off. He folded his arms and eyed Koga up and down; he was obviously the alpha male of this little ragtag group of misfits. This guy had triggered his spider-sense, he was sure of it. He noticed that his spider-sense was telling him that the bulk of his power was in his legs. That's where he must have been keeping the jewel shards, both of them. He wasn't going to give those up easily. But where did he get them? If Naraku already had most of the jewel shards, he must have gotten it from him. Perhaps this Koga was an associate of his? At any rate, he had to get to the bottom of this, and fast, lest Kagome and the others get dragged into this. "But perhaps you could tell me where you got them magic jewel shards in your legs?"

This startled Koga even more than looking this Spider-Man square in eyes. "What? You can see them?"

"Yeah, kinda. So?"

_How can he do that?_ Koga thought to himself. _Only demons can sense jewel shards. This guy must be after my shards! Well, if he wants them, then he'll have to take them from me by force!_ Koga growled at Spider-Man and assumed a battle stance, flexing his claws.

Spidey saw Koga prepare himself for a fight. He would rather it not have to come to violence, but it looked that it was inevitable at this point. He readied himself into his own signature fighting pose. This was gonna get ugly.

-----------------------------------------

Kagome was still sitting with Sango at the edge of the forest. Spider-Man had been gone for nearly an hour by now, and the two of them had been passing time with small talk, mostly personal questions delving into their respective relationships that were met with vague and flighty answers. Both of them sighed; they were beginning to get bored with this. With the boys out cold, and Spidey off doing who-knows-what, there really wasn't much to do or talk about.

There was a rustling in the basket on Kagome's bike. Shippo woke up, and promptly hopped into Kagome's lap. Kirara also stirred, and followed suit into Sango's lap, who began to stroke her fur absentmindedly.

"Hey," Shippo asked Kagome, "where'd Spider-Man go?"

"I don't really know, Shippo," Kagome replied. "He went off into the forest a while ago. Said he wanted to check on something." She stared off into the woods where Spider-Man had vanished earlier. She became lost in her concentration, trying to guess who, or what, Spider-Man had gone in search of. That was when she felt it; at least she thought she did. The presence of a jewel shard! No, no, wait a minute. It was pretty faint, almost nonexistent really, but something was there.

"Kagome?" Sango tried to wake her friend from her reverie.

"Hmm?" Kagome snapped out of it.

"What were you looking at?"

"Oh, nothing. I thought I saw something, but I guess I didn't."

Just then, they heard a grunt-like sound to their left. Inuyasha and Miroku were finally stirring from their exhaustion-instigated slumber. Inuyasha sat up slowly, grasping the ground around him in search of his trusty sword. When he found and holstered it, he climbed to his feet, still somewhat dazed. Miroku shook his head as though he had a migraine, leaning on his staff for support.

"Whahappen?" Inuyasha stammered.

Kagome laughed a little. "I think the two of you overdid it in that race. A lot of good it did you, too."

"Come again?" Miroku asked.

"You both were so determined to outdo Spider-Man, that you pushed yourselves to collapse from fatigue," Sango lectured them. "You've been out for almost an hour."

The memory returned to Inuyasha, as well as the anger associated with it. He looked around, planning to give the wall-crawler a piece of his mind, but he was nowhere to be found. He turned to Kagome. "And just where is that little punk anyway?"

Kagome pointed into the woods. "He went in there to check something out shortly after you fell asleep."

Inuyasha gazed into the forest. He sniffed the air. Yeah, Spider-Man definitely went that way, alright. But wait! He sniffed again, detecting the presence of someone familiar. It couldn't be! Could it? Him? Here? Now? Why now of all times?

"That scent!" he exclaimed.

Kagome was a little startled by this. "What? What is it?"

"C'mon, we have to follow him," was all that she got in response. With that, Inuyasha took of into the woods in hot pursuit of his quarry.

"Inuyasha! Wait!" Kagome called out after him, but it was no use; he was gone. She sighed in exasperation. "C'mon, we can't leave him by himself for a minute."

The lot of them grabbed what they could and hurried off after Inuyasha, and whatever he was chasing.

-----------------------------------------

Spider-Man was facing off against Koga of the wolf demon tribe while Koga's two sidekicks, Ginta and Hakkaku, watched. They began to slowly circle each other, waiting for their opponent to make the first move.

"The violent type, eh?" Spider-Man said. "Call me Swiss, but I prefer not to fight if I can help it."

"You want my jewel shards, don't you?" Koga snapped back.

"Well, yeah, I suppose so," Spidey admitted.

"Then you'll have to take them over my dead body!"

Spidey sighed. "Well then, have you ever seen a Western?" He lowered his hands to his waist and flexed his fingers, as if he was getting ready to quickly draw a gun from a holster like a cowboy of the Old West would.

That question threw Koga off a little. "Huh?"

"Draw!" Spidey shouted.

Spider-Man fired a web-line straight at Koga's face. Koga's demonic reflexes enabled him to nearly evade the attack by ducking to his left. Gathering himself after the assault, Koga rushed forward and thrust his knee at Spider-Man chest. Spidey disengaged his web-line and brought both of his hands together to block the strike. Unflinching, Koga brought his other foot around and tried to kick Spidey square in the jaw. Spidey pushed Koga's knee forward and leaned his head back to have Koga's foot narrowly miss his chin. As fluid as a river, Spider-Man used the momentum he had gathered from dodging Koga's attacks to perform a back flip onto the tree behind him. Koga slid backwards on his feet for about two yards.

"You're pretty good, Spider-Man," Koga said.

"You're not so bad yourself, Lon Cheney," Spidey replied.

Koga growled at the remark, but he didn't have time to call him on it. Spider-Man fired two web-lines into the trees above him, used them like a stuntman's harness to gain some altitude, and came down at Koga with a full-strength kick. Koga evaded the attack by jumping straight up, and Spidey ended up striking the ground with enough force to shatter the earth beneath him. Koga attempted a sweeping kick in midair, but Spidey simply ducked it. Spidey then tried to hit Koga with another kick to the chin while he performed one more back flip. Koga still had enough leverage about him to twist out of the way of Spidey's strike.

As soon Spider-Man landed on his feet, he leapt forward at Koga, intending to launch with a frontal assault. Koga also landed safely on his feet and jumped toward Spider-Man. Spidey started it off with a right hook at Koga's face. Koga tilted his head to his right and easily avoided the punch. Koga engaged his claws and made a downward slash with his right hand at the web-spinner, who sidestepped the swipe while taking hold of Koga's right wrist with his left hand. With his enemy left open, Spidey was finally able to nail Koga square in the jaw with an uppercut-right hook. Spider-Man let go of Koga, and Koga staggered back a bit. He wiped the blood from his mouth with his hand and sneered at the wall-crawler.

"Heh. First blood to you," he grunted with slight amusement.

Ginta and Hakkaku had been watching the fight with the wolf pack from the safety of the woods. "Amazing," said Ginta. "This Spider-Man guy must be pretty fast to keep up with Koga like that."

"Yeah," Hakkaku agreed. "And to be able to hit him like that is an even more spectacular feat."

"Then again," said Ginta, "Koga's not really even trying yet. That Spider-Man is gonna get the worst of it in about two seconds."

Koga chuckled to himself. "You're obviously one of the tougher opponents I've faced recently. It takes a lot of speed to keep up with me, much more to actually land a hit."

"Aw, stop," Spidey replied. "You're making me blush."

Koga flexed and cracked his claws again. "But the kid gloves are off now, fool. Now I'm really gonna tear you a new one."

Spidey wasn't taking his threat seriously, until his spider-sense screamed, warning him that the wolf demon had activated the power of the Shikon Jewel shards in his legs. Koga dashed forward with far more speed than Spidey was prepared for. Koga threw a right hook at Spider-Man, who brought his hand up to block. Then, all of a sudden, Koga vanished in a blur, leaving Spidey utterly bewildered. Suddenly, Spidey was it in his right cheekbone by Koga's mighty fist, and was sent flying into the air by the impact. Spidey looked back in midair to where the attack came from, only to see a grinning Koga disappear into thin air for a second time. Spidey turned himself around and tried to regain his balance. His spider-sense blared, but before he could react, he was struck in the back by a ferocious double-kick from Koga. Spider-Man plummeted to the ground like a rock and struck the earth hard, knocking the wind out of him. Spidey slowly stumbled to his feet, coughing a little. Koga landed nimbly on his feet, arms folded and the smuggest look on his face, on a tree root protruding from the ground not far from the web-slinger.

"Not so easy to fight back now, is it?" Koga taunted.

"Yeah, that's our boss!" Ginta cheered.

"You get 'em, Koga!" Hakkaku added. The wolves all barked in their own kind of "applause."

"You may be the fastest mouse in all Mexico, Speedy Gonzales," Spidey retorted. "But this is far from over."

Koga sneered. "Oh, but it _is_ over. For you, anyway."

Koga dashed at Spider-Man again at full force. Spidey braced himself for another attack, but strangely, it never came. Koga simply began to circle Spider-Man, quickly increasing his speed to blinding proportions. In a manner of moments, Spidey found himself caught in the middle of Koga's signature cyclone. Suddenly, Spider-Man was hit from behind, then from the side, then from the other side, then again and again from virtually everywhere. Koga was using his inhuman speed to attack Spider-Man from every direction at once while essentially negating any opportunity for a counterattack by moving to fast to hit. Spider-Man began to lose balance as the never-ending rain of blows from his foe weakened him little by little.

"Ha ha! He's done, Koga! Finish him off!" Ginta and Hakkaku yelled from their hiding spot.

_This is bad!_ Spidey thought as he tried as best as he could to shield himself from Koga's attacks. _My strength is starting to fade; I can't keep this up for much longer._ A particularly hard punch nailed Spidey in the back and dropped him to the floor, followed by Koga's distinct laughing and taunting. _Darn it! C'mon, Spidey! Get your head in the game._ At that thought, Spidey had an epiphany got to his feet. _That's it! I haven't been relying on my spider-sense enough in this fight! I've got to shut everything else out and focus all my attention on my spider-sense. Then I'll be able to take this joker out!_

Spider-Man calmed down, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. He blocked everything else out, including Koga's incessant attacks. He focused all his attention on his spider-sense, letting it guide his actions. He tried to locate the weak point in Koga's attack pattern, the spot where he was most vulnerable. He contorted his right hand into a fist, summoning all the strength he had into a single, almighty blow. Then, his spider-sense blared, and he knew it was the right moment to strike. He threw a spider-powered punch into Koga's blustering whirlwind. The hit met its mark; Spidey caught Koga in the middle of his tornado square in the face. Koga hadn't even conceived the possibility that he could be hit while in his cyclone, so his guard was completely down. Koga was sent flying back like a cannonball and smashed into the tree that Ginta and Hakkaku were hiding behind, nearly shattering the tree bark. Koga slid down the trunk to the roots on the ground, reeling in pain and barely conscious.

"Koga!" they cried, completely taken aback by their leader's upsetting defeat.

"Ha!" Spidey yelled. "Who's afraid of the big bad wolf now?"

Koga could hardly manage a grunt for a response.

Just in case, Spider-Man sprayed Koga down with webbing to keep him from using his staggering speed again. Koga opened his eyes to find himself trapped in thick, sticky goo, pinning him to the tree and the ground. His strength was totally drained from his own attacks and Spider-Man's bone-shattering blow, so he could hardly struggle against the odd substance; much less free himself from it.

Ginta and Hakkaku cowered behind the tree as Spider-Man came walking up to Koga. He held is hand out in front of Koga's face, his middle and ring fingers on the trigger of his web-shooter. In a mock serious tone imitating Clint Eastwood, he said, "Now this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun on the planet. It can take a man's head clean off. Right now, you're thinking 'Did he fire five rounds or six?' To be honest, with all the commotion, I didn't keep track myself. I may have a shot left; I may not. So you gotta ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well . . . do ya, punk?"

At that moment, a voice called out from the trees behind Spider-Man. "I'd know that rancid stench anywhere! I knew he was here somewhere!" It was Inuyasha. He trudged through the forest with a massive scowl on his face, followed by a concerned Kagome and then the others.

Spidey looked over his shoulder. "Oh, hey. I was just gonna handle this joker here and head on back to you guys. So, you just sit tight there and I'll be with you in a minute, Ka—"

"Kagome!" Ginta and Hakkaku called to her.

"Wha?" Koga mumbled. "Kagome's here?"

Spidey stopped dead. "Huh?" He turned to face Kagome. "You know this shmuck?" he said while pointing to Koga with his thumb, utterly confused.

Kagome saw Koga and rushed to his side. Inuyasha saw this, and was about to put his foot in his mouth again when Miroku held him back.

"Koga!" said Kagome while cradling his face. "What happened to you?"

Koga raised his hand as best he could and pointed to Spider-Man. "Th-that guy . . ."

Kagome looked at Spidey with a little amount animosity present on her normally kind face. Spidey simply stuttered, shifting his hands from Koga to Kagome to Inuyasha and the others, trying to make sense of it all. "But . . . he . . . I . . . you . . . them . . ." He hung his head and added meekly, "Sorry."

Calm retuned to Kagome's features as she sighed with exasperation. "Don't worry about it now; I'm sure this was all some huge misunderstanding. We'll sort it out later." She turned to Inuyasha. "Can you cut him out of this stuff?" she asked, indicating Spider-Man's webbing that was all over Koga.

Inuyasha flared up with rage. "Why on earth would I ever want to do that?!" he barked.

Kagome glared at Inuyasha like a basilisk. "Because if you don't, I'll say the s-word again," she deadpanned.

Inuyasha flinched at the threat. " . . . Alright," he grudgingly consented. He dragged his feet over to Koga and used his Tetsusaiga to cut him free of the webbing.

Kagome then looked up to Ginta and Hakkaku. "Then could you two carry him and follow me?"

"Sure thing, sis," they complied. They hoisted Koga up between them, each supporting one his arms with one of their own.

"Sis?" Spidey repeated under his breath, still baffled beyond reckoning.

"C'mon," Kagome said. "Let's find someplace quiet and sort this whole thing out."

She went off into the woods, with Ginta and Hakkaku holding Koga behind her and the wolf pack behind them. Then Inuyasha came up, grunting and grumbling under his breath. Miroku and Sango sighed and went along too, followed by Shippo and Kirara. Spidey was left alone for a minute, scratching his head. Then he shrugged his shoulders and walked after the group.

-----------------------------------------

Some time later, the group was sitting around a fire in silence. It was late in the day and it would be dark fairly soon. Koga looked fine, for the most part; he had a couple of scratches about him and Kagome was currently putting a cold compress to the part of his face that Spider-Man smacked a good one. He did, however, seem to be enjoying at least that. Inuyasha was using all of the willpower he had to keep his mouth shut, and it was fading fast; he tapped his feet and twiddled his fingers like a schizophrenic. Ginta and Hakkaku were doing their best to keep the wolves occupied so they didn't cause too much of a ruckus. Miroku, Sango, and Shippo could tell what was coming, and had decided to stay out of it before it even started. Spider-Man himself was still confounded as ever, as he had yet to receive an explanation of Koga's association with Kagome and the others. And what about that "sis" thing?

"Okay," Spidey said to get things started, "can somebody tell me what the heck is going on here? Evidently, I screwed up big time, and I am sorry about that, but I would like to know why, if you wouldn't mind."

"You attacked me and tried to take my jewel shards, that's what happened!" Koga bellowed.

"Sorry, dude, but something sets off my spider-sense, I wail on it. Personal policy. You understand," Spidey defended himself and his actions.

"No, I don't understand," Koga said. "What on earth is a 'spider-sense?'"

"You know," Kagome said, turning to Spider-Man, "I would like to know what you're talking about too. I think you might have mentioned that sometime before."

"Oh yeah, I did," Spidey realized. He began to explain. "My spider-sense is like a personal danger radar that's always on. It borders on precognition, really. It allows me to sense the direction, intensity, and proximity, but not necessarily nature, of a potential threat. I think that it was your jewel shards that set it off."

At this, Inuyasha's curiosity was piqued. "You can sense jewel shards?"

"Evidently," Spidey replied. "Whatever these Shikon jewel shards are, they're definitely dangerous, which means I can track them. My trusty spider-sense alerts me to any kind of danger, no matter how small or how large. It warns me about everything from immediate threats like a gun being fired at me or punch thrown at the back of my head, to mundane threats like a slippery floor or spoiled food. Plain and simple, I can't be caught off-guard or snuck up on. Not even my own wife can take me by surprise." He chuckled to himself for a second. "Which really kinda sucks in that sense when I think about it."

"Well, that could really come in handy, I suppose," commented Kagome as she attended to Koga.

"So, my turn for questions," Spidey said. "How do you guys know this werewolf wannabe here?" he asked, indicating Koga.

With that last remark, Koga lost his cool. He stood up and stared down right into Spider-Man's eyes with a death glare. "You know what? I've had it with you! One more wisecrack like that from you and I'll—"

"You'll what?" Spidey cut him off, not intimidated in the slightest. "Huff and puff and blow my house down?"

Before Koga could reply, Kagome calmed him down. "Come on, Koga. He's just playing with you. It's his way of being friendly."

"Yeah, being a smart-alec is kinda my thing," Spidey said. "Just like wearing too much fur in the spring is your thing, apparently."

Koga growled a little, but ultimately just sat down, huffing. "Well, if you must know, Kagome is my fiancée."

Spidey raised an eyebrow under his mask. "Beg pardon?" He looked over to Kagome, who was shaking her head and waving her hands in front of her face with a very uncomfortable look on her flushed face.

Inuyasha quickly stood up and got right in Koga's face. "How many times do I have to tell you, you mangy wolf?! Kagome is not going to marry you!" he shouted, his hand on his sword.

"And how many times do I have to tell _you_, you stupid mutt?! She _is_ going to marry me!" Koga shouted right back.

Now it was Kagome's turn. She stood up, slammed her foot down, and shouted at both of them. "And how many times do I have to tell the _both_ of you?! I'm not marrying anybody!"

Miroku and Sango were shifting uncomfortably. "Should we do something to stop them before this gets out of hand?" Miroku said.

"Yeah, I think we should," replied Sango.

Spidey waved them off. "No no no, don't do that. This is better than 'Grey's Anatomy.' Besides, if I remember anything from my youth, it's to let little squabbles like this work themselves out." He sighed, looking at the two boys ready to tear each other's throats out. "But then again, you do have a point there."

Inuyasha and Koga were right in each other's face, their claws ready to rip the other to pieces. Then Spidey walked up to the two of them and separated them by pushing them apart with his arms.

"Alright, you two. Ref calls unnecessary roughness. Two minutes, penalty box," Spidey said. He forced them to the ground and made them take a seat. Then he turned to Kagome. "You, sit." Sensing his patience running low, she quickly complied. "Now Kagome," Spidey said while sat down on a stump and leaned toward Kagome, "why don't you pretend I'm Dr. Phil and tell me all about this little . . . thing . . . going on here."

"This mangy wolf says—" Inuyasha started.

Spidey silenced him without a glance by holding up a finger. "Wait your turn, Droopy. I wanna hear what the lady has to say."

"Um, well . . . where do I start?" Kagome said. "We met Koga a while back. He needed our help to save his tribe from a group of demon birds called the Birds of Paradise that were at war with them. He kinda . . . um . . . convinced me to lend him a hand locating the birds' jewel shard and then we sorta got rid of the birds. It's all a really . . . complicated kind of thing."

"I see. And I assume this is when—" Spidey started, pointing at Koga.

"Yeah," Kagome cut him off quickly.

"Gotcha," said Spidey, dropping the subject after clearly sensing that Kagome didn't want to go there. "So, then what?"

Koga spoke up. "I'll take over from here, if you don't mind."

"Oh, well I do mi—" Inuyasha started. He was stopped mid-sentence by Spider-Man, who webbed his mouth shut without even looking. He tried to remove it with his claws, but it was too sticky. He fell over on his back, struggling to get it off through muffled curses. Everyone else, on the other hand, seemed to find this quite amusing.

"Continue," Spidey said, unblinking.

"A while ago," Koga explained, "some members of my tribe went to a castle to acquire a jewel shard they had heard about. It turned out to be a trap set by Naraku, and a female incarnation of his named Kagura butchered them all." He growled. "Me and these two," he indicated Ginta and Hakkaku, "have been trying to track Naraku down so I can kill him and avenge my comrades ever since."

Spider-Man nodded. He understood where Koga was coming from, at least mostly. But there was one thing that bothered him. "Err . . ." he started. "Did he say 'female incarnation'?"

"I'll try to explain that one later," Kagome said after an awkward laugh.

Spidey shrugged. "Whatever. I've seen weirder . . . which is really disturbing when I think about it. Just watch using that word 'comrade' around me again, buster. Being an American, it makes me kinda edgy."

An uncomfortable silenced followed, except for Inuyasha, who was still trying to get the webbing off his mouth. Spidey decided to break it. "So . . . so long as we're after the same guy, why don't you join the party and come with us?" he suggested.

Koga was a bit taken aback by Spider-Man's offer. "Me? Join you guys?"

"Sure," Spidey said. "It'll be a fun, quest-type thing. I could be the Dungeon Master."

"Uhhhh," Koga hesitated. "I . . . I usually work alone."

Spidey leaned forward. "So Tweedledee and Tweedledum over there don't count then?" he pointed out, nodding in the direction of Ginta and Hakkaku.

Koga stammered. "Oh . . . well . . . uh . . . that's different."

"Oh really? How so?" Spidey pushed.

"Ummm . . ." Koga was caught.

"Hey, pal," Spidey said, "I consider myself a sort of lone wolf too (pun totally intended), but that doesn't mean I'm above a good ol' fashioned team-up every now and again."

Kagome spoke up. "Oh come on, Koga. Spider-Man is right. We'd be a lot stronger together than apart. Didn't you ever realize that?"

"Well, I guess . . ." Koga thought about it.

At that moment, Inuyasha, with the webbing still covering his mouth, jumped in front of Spider-Man, a most angry expression on his face. He started making very livid sounds while moving his hands around in an incensed manner.

"Kagome," said Spidey calmly.

"Uh, yes?" she replied.

"The 'secret word' if you please," he asked politely.

"Of course; I'd be glad to," she answered, with a smirk on her face. Inuyasha's eyes grew wide as he realized what was about to happen. "SIT!"

Inuyasha slammed to the ground, leaving the usual imprint.

"Well, I, for one, will never get tired of that," Spidey commented.

Kagome giggled. "Neither will I."

"Can you make him roll over too?" Spidey asked.

"No, unfortunately," she answered.

Koga shifted uncomfortably. "Well, if Kagome wants it, I suppose I could come along to protect her. I guess I could even put up with the mutt for a while for her sake, just to make sure he doesn't put her in any kind of danger," he said, trying to justify his decision.

"Yeah, sure, pal," Spidey said. "Whatever floats your boat."

"Ginta! Hakkaku!" Koga called his companions.

They left the wolf pack and answered their leader. "Yes, Koga?"

"You two would kind of be in the way here. I think you should take the wolf pack back to the den for a while until I come for you. The rest of the tribe must be worried about us since we haven't kept in contact for a long time. I'll be okay with Kagome for a while; don't worry."

Ginta and Hakkaku looked at each other uneasily. "Okay, boss. Whatever you say," Ginta said. "C'mon, Hakkaku. You heard him. Get the wolves and let's go." They went back to get the wolves and move on.

Kagome leaned over to Koga. "Are you sure? Letting them go like that?" she whispered.

"Yeah," Koga replied. "They'll be fine. They may not be that handy in a fight, but they can at least take care of themselves. Besides, I wasn't lying when I said they'd get in the way. They tend to do that."

Spidey jumped in. "Yeah, I can relate to that, all right. It'd make it kinda crowded around here anyway."

As Ginta and Hakkaku left with the wolf pack, Hakkaku whispered to Ginta. "At least we can catch some time to rest for a change."

Despite being muffled, Koga's sensitive ears picked up Hakkaku's comment. "I heard that," he growled.

With that, Ginta and Hakkaku tensed up, and then sped off with the wolf pack right behind them, before they could feel Koga's wraith.

"Huh," Koga grunted. "Fastest I ever seen them run."

Miroku spoke up. "So, Koga will be joining us as well for the time being?"

"Yeah, I guess I'll stick around for a while, for Kagome's sake," Koga said.

Kagome shifted quite uncomfortably, wishing that he hadn't said that. "So, it's settled then, at least for now?" she said.

"Seems that way," Spidey said conclusively. "Well, that's all well and good, but we should get moving before it gets dark again, right?"

"Yeah, you're right," Kagome agreed. She turned to Koga. "Can you stand?"

Koga leapt to his feet quite easily. "Yeah, I'm fine. It'd take more than that to keep me down!" he said confidently.

"Then I'll be sure to log that away," Spidey commented as he got himself up.

Koga snorted at the remark, but didn't say anything.

"Well, we had better get going then," Sango urged them to start moving. The group each gathered their things and began to depart, when they heard an angry, muffled voice behind them. They turned to see that it was Inuyasha, fuming over Spider-Man's webbing over his mouth. He pointed at it irately, demanding that someone remove it immediately.

"You know the drill, dude," Spidey said cheerily. "Wait an hour."

At that, Inuyasha exploded with rage, absolutely vivid with his situation. The group decided to ignore him and proceed forward. Realizing they were about to leave him, Inuyasha drudged along behind, even more morose than usual.

"You know," Kagome said casually, "I think that this is going to be a rather pleasant walk while this lasts."

"Oh yeah," everyone else said in unison, agreeing wholeheartedly with her.


	8. Bear With It

**The Fang and the Web**

Chapter 8: Bear With It

"Hey! Just what do you think you're doing you flea-bitten wolf?" Inuyasha shouted at Koga as he got right in his face.

"Walking next to my fiancée. Does that bother you, mutt-face?" Koga answered right back.

Kagome, who was in-between the two quarrelers, simply sighed for the umpteenth time since Spider-Man had convinced Koga to join them the previous day. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take. Part of her was kind of enjoying the attention, though.

Miroku, Sango, and Spider-Man lingered behind Kagome and the morons.

"Well," said Sango, "she must like all this fighting over her. I kinda envy that." She saw Inuyasha and Koga give each other death glares again as Kagome tried to push them apart to keep them from killing each other. "Well, almost."

"If you really feel that way, then I—" Miroku started, but a sharp look from Sango quickly shut him up.

"Those big dopes," said Shippo, who was riding on Spider-Man's shoulder. "Can't they just be friends? I suppose they never will, so long as they're both after Kagome's heart."

"Eh. Reed and Namor seem to do alright," Spidey said. "And I guess Matt and Tony do too. And I suppose Scott and Logan get along well enough, all things considered. But Logan could be a bit cheerier about it. Then again, he's never really cheery about anything."

"Huh?" Shippo said.

"Never mind; just thinking out loud," Spidey replied.

Inuyasha shouted at Koga again. "Get your filthy paws away from Kagome!"

"She's _my_ fiancée, so what business is it of yours?!" Koga yelled right back.

"Will the two of you give it a rest already?!" Kagome bellowed, but to no avail, just like all the other times she tried to get the two of them to stop fighting.

Spider-Man stretched his fingers over his forehead in exasperation; he had had enough of this. "Hold on a sec, little man," he said to Shippo as he put him on the ground. He walked right up to and past Inuyasha and Koga, and grabbed them by their funky ears as he passed them.  
"Hey! What gives?!" Inuyasha shouted.

"What the?!" Koga said.

Spider-Man dragged them over to a rock on the side of the path they were walking on and forced them to sit on it. "Now listen here, you dunderheads," Spidey lectured them. "Starting now, the two of you are gonna put aside your differences and work together peacefully, comprende?"

"Not on your life!" Inuyasha bellowed. "I can't stand him!"

"I'd rather be eaten alive by rats then work with this idiot!" Koga yelled.

Spider-Man quickly grabbed each of them by their heads and knocked them together hard.

"Hey!" said Inuyasha, rubbing his head.

"What was that for?" asked Koga.

"To knock some sense into you bozos," Spidey explained. "Just because you don't get along doesn't mean you can't work together on a team.

"Look, there's this one guy back where I come from, calls himself the Punisher. He's a self-proclaimed vigilante who has a rather unhealthy habit of shooting first and never asking questions. I think he's a tormented serial killer who uses unacceptable actions to ultimately achieve his own good intentions, and he thinks I'm an idealistic fool who lacks the stomach to use lethal force. Although we're always changing from being allies and enemies, we both try to protect the innocent, and this small common ground enables the two of us to work together. So don't tell me you can't function as a team because you 'can't stand each other.' Now pull your pathetic act together before I have to bash your empty heads together again!"

Inuyasha and Koga quickly looked at each other, then at Spider-Man.

"Yeah, I hear ya," Inuyasha quickly said.

"Sure, whatever," Koga said just as fast.

Spider-Man, finished with his lecture, released them from his hold. "Good. Now keep moving before I get mad again." They quickly complied.

Miroku, Sango, and the others were in awe.

"Wow," said Shippo. "I've only seen Kagome be able to control those two."

"Indeed," agreed Miroku. _I had best not get on his bad side either_, he thought to himself.

Kagome walked up to Spider-Man. She looked over to Inuyasha and Koga, who weren't in each other's faces any more, but were still grunting and grumbling all the same. "That was really something how you got them to cool off like that," she said.

"Don't mention it," Spidey brushed it off. "Someone has to teach these degenerates some manners." He pointed at Miroku over his shoulder with his thumb. "And Pope Innocent the First back there is no better." Miroku did a double take.

"Um, if you don't mind my asking," Kagome said, "who was that person you were talking about a second ago? The Punisher or something? Did you make that up just to get them to stop fighting?"

"Oh, him," said Spidey. "No, he's a real guy. From what I've heard, his real name's Frank Castle. His is a really sad case."

"Really? What happened?" Kagome asked.

"Well," Spidey reminisced, as he lifted Shippo back onto his shoulder, "he was a very accomplished Marine veteran of the Vietnam War. He was awarded like four Purple Hearts and a couple of other decorations, and was supposed to get the Presidential Medal of Freedom too."

"Wow," said Kagome. "That's amazing."

"Is that really good, Kagome?" Shippo asked. "What does that mean?"

"It means that he was a very strong soldier in the army," she explained.

"But that's where the happy part of his story ends, regrettably," Spidey continued. "Just a few days before he was supposed to get the Medal, he took his family for a picnic in Central Park, where the most sad and unfortunate thing happened."

"What?" Kagome asked.

"They stumbled upon a mafia hit. Not looking for witnesses, the mobsters opened fire on them. Frank somehow survived, but his wife and two children didn't."

Kagome covered her mouth. "How horrible."

"Ever since then, Frank has dedicated his life to punishing criminals. The part that's truly horrible is that he deemed himself judge, jury, and executioner, but mostly executioner. He didn't hand the gangsters over to the authorities; he hunted them down and killed them all like animals. What's worse is that his vengeance didn't stop there. He felt compelled to eradicate all crime, and has waged a one-man war on it ever since, slaughtering the criminals he finds rather than turning them in. He calls it his punishment for not being able to save his family. A never-ending cycle of revenge and senseless slaughter."

"How awful," said Kagome.

"And the lot of you could learn something from that," Spidey concluded.

"What on earth could that be?" Shippo asked.

"Frank took revenge to a level that he never should have. By taking a life, even a criminal's, he became that which he hated most: a killer."

"But what would that have to do with us?" asked Shippo.

"I understand why you despise Naraku, believe me, I do," Spidey explained. "And I'm not saying in any way, shape, or form that the crimes he's committed aren't unacceptable and atrocious. Considering everything he has done you, it's completely natural that you'd hate his guts and want revenge. But think of it this way: if you kill him, just as he killed the ones you cared about, you'll be lowering yourselves to his level. And then, will you truly be any better than he?"

Kagome was taken aback by this question. "Hmm, I never really thought about it like that."

Inuyasha, however, wasn't as stunned. Rather, he was quite offended. "Do you actually expect us to forgive Naraku?!" he yelled back at Spider-Man.

"Not in the slightest," Spidey answered. "All I'm saying is this. I can say from experience that the dumb look on a bad guy's ugly mug when he knows he's been thwarted and his sorry kiester is going to prison is way better than deep-sixing his butt could ever be."

"Feh," Inuyasha huffed in response. "That's stupid. How bad could this 'prison' thing be?"

"Well, obviously you've never seen 'Oz,'" said Spidey. "And I'm talking about the dank, dreary, grey one, not the bright, happy, Technicolor one."

"What's he talking about now?" Sango asked Kagome quietly.

"You don't wanna know," Kagome sighed. She turned to Spider-Man. "You know, it's not that easy. I doubt there's a jail cell around here in this time."

"True," Spidey admitted. "But let's cross that bridge when we come to it."

"And you forget that unless Naraku is slain soon, my Wind Tunnel will eventually become my own destruction," Miroku pointed out.

"Also true," Spidey said. "But you know the saying. There's more than one way to skin a cat."

Kirara, who had been sitting on Sango's shoulder, hissed at Spidey's maxim.

"Except you, you fiery little furball," Spidey said as he gave her a quick pat on her head. She mewed.

"Hmph," Inuyasha snorted. He obviously didn't care in the slightest about what Spider-Man was saying.

Spider-Man's eyes narrowed at Inuyasha beneath his mask, not so much out of anger, as it was concern. When he next spoke, his voice suddenly lost its usual lightheartedness and became very serious. "Believe me, Inuyasha. Revenge is a poison. It's like an evil black sludge that consumes and takes control of you, turning you into something you're not. I understand where you're coming from. Honestly, I do. I've been there myself; it's full of nothing but darkness and loneliness. It's not somewhere you want to be."

For the slightest of moments, Inuyasha looked as though he was considering Spidey's words. Then he grunted again and said, "I don't care what you think, you simpleton. Whatever happened to that Punishing guy won't happen to me."

Spidey' voice returned to its normal light tone. "Famous last words, tough guy," he countered. "Think you can back that up?"

"Of course he can't," Koga interjected. "He's a complete loser."

"What'd you say?!" Inuyasha shouted back at him.

"Going deaf too? Those big dog ears of yours not working?" Koga shot right back.

"Better than yours, you walking flea farm! And who even asked you to come along anyway? We don't even need you!"

"As a matter of fact, my Kagome asked me to accompany her, and I'm here to protect her from danger, since you obviously can't!"

"HEY!" Spider-Man shouted. "Both of you shut it!"

Inuyasha and Koga looked over at Spider-Man, then back at each other. They both huffed and turned away from each other.

"Jeez," Spidey sighed. "It's like I'm babysitting the Power Pack or something." He turned to the others. "You guys must have the patience of saints to deal with these royal pains in the butt. How do you listen to that all day?"

"At least you listen," Miroku responded. "I, for one, just tune them out."

Spidey paused for a minute, thinking that over. "Hm, good man."

Kagome sighed. "Those two will never be friends, will they? They'll just keep fighting like that and never grow up."

"Now I wouldn't say that," Spidey said. "If I remember right, when we first met, by best friend and I didn't exactly get along right off the bat either, if you know what I mean. In fact, I daresay we acted just like those nincompoops."

"Really?" Kagome asked. "Who's that? Your best friend, I mean."

"His name's Johnny. Johnny Storm," Spidey answered.

As soon as she heard that name, Kagome lit up like a street lamp. "Johnny Storm?! _The_ Johnny Storm?! Of the world-famous Fantastic Four?!"

Spidey was completely surprised by her outburst. "Uh . . . yeah, that's the guy. I . . . wait a minute. How'd you know that?"

A slight blush rose to Kagome's cheeks as she started to swoon a little. She tried her best to cover her face, but Spidey could still tell something was up. "Well," she said timidly, "to tell the truth, I used to have the biggest crush on him when I was like ten years old. I even had a giant poster of him on my wall."

"Yeah . . . disturbing," was all Spidey could say to that.

Kagome quickly turned to Spidey. "You just said that he was your best friend, right? Is that really true?" she asked. He nodded uncomfortably. "Then . . . could you . . . maybe . . . introduce me to him sometime?" she barely managed to say due to her uncharacteristic shyness.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Spidey said uneasily.

Just then, both Inuyasha and Koga popped in between Kagome and Spider-Man like a couple of pissed off whack-a-moles. "Like hell you will!" they shouted at him right in his face.

Spidey looked at them strangely through his mask. "Uh, look, guys. Johnny's cool. He's my best bud; I know him really well. He's a pretty easy-going kinda guy. You got nothing to worry about; he wouldn't do anything. Besides, he's like my age anyways," he tried to ease their not-so-well-hidden suspicions.

Still apprehensive, but somewhat pacified, Inuyasha and Koga slowly backed away from the web-slinger.

"I still don't like this Storm guy," Inuyasha muttered.

"Me neither," Koga agreed.

"So, if we see him, we waste 'em?" Inuyasha suggested.

"In a heartbeat," Koga said. They quickly shook on it.

Back in the rear of the group, Spidey pointed this out to Kagome. "See? They're getting along already. All they needed to do was to find the things they had in common. You know, their mutual likes and dislikes. They both like you, they both don't like me, and apparently they both already don't like Johnny."

"Maybe," Kagome said, thinking about it for a second. Then she turned back to Spidey just as quickly. "But you're still gonna introduce me, right?" she asked again.

"We'll see," Spidey said. "Let's see if we can't get back to our own time period first when this is all over. Besides, I got a funny feeling something's gonna go down here pretty soon, so stay sharp."

"Really?" Miroku asked. "What makes you say that?"

"Absolute probability," Spider-Man answered bluntly. "The last time something really bad happened was over twenty-four hours ago, so if experience serves right, we should be overdue by now."

Sango eyed the wall-crawler wearily. "You're a real pessimist, you know that?" she told him.

"I prefer to think of myself as a realist. But, hey, tomāto, tomăto. Trust me; it's almost as if the trouble was already on its way here." He thought about that for a minute. "I really gotta quit saying stuff like that."

-----------------------------------------

A young girl leapt through the branches of a forest in a desperate ploy to throw off her pursuer. Still, she knew it had little chance of working. Her pursuer was not going to be that easy to lose, but she had to try. She had but one hope, which was to evade her attacker just long enough to find the one person who could help her.

Believing she had obtained enough of a gap between her and her pursuer, she stopped on a particularly large branch to catch her breath. Then the tree just behind the one she was perched on fell with a crash loud enough to wake the dead. She quickly turned to see her assailant closer than she had anticipated. She was exhausted beyond measure at this point, but she managed to gather enough of her remaining strength to continue her escape. She leapt off the branch, landed on the ground, and tried to get as much distance between her and her attacker as she could on foot. In the back of her mind, she knew she couldn't last much longer. If she wanted to survive, she needed to find him, and find him now!

"Where are you?" she cried to herself. "I need you, Koga!"

-----------------------------------------

"I'm still not sure about that whole prison idea for Naraku," Kagome said to Spider-Man as the group was still on their way to their next unknown destination.

"Hmm, perhaps you're right," Spidey said. "The best you guys got around here are like medieval dungeons, huh?"

"Yeah," Kagome affirmed. "And I sincerely doubt one of those would be able to hold him. Or any modern prison, for that matter."

Spider-Man thought about that for a minute. "I bet the Raft could," he said.

"How would a tiny little raft be able to hold a demon as powerful as Naraku?" Shippo, who was still riding on Spider-Man's shoulder.

"Not a raft that you can ride, _the_ Raft. It's the name of a prison in my and Kagome's time."

"What is it then?" Kagome asked. "I've never heard of it."

"I wouldn't expect you to have," Spidey said. "But you have heard of Ryker's Island, right?"

"I think so," Kagome answered. "Isn't it a maximum security prison that's on a small island not far away from Manhattan Island? It's supposed to be one of the most secure and well-guarded jails in the whole world, right?"

"Correctimundo," Spidey answered. "And the Raft is another, somewhat less well-known prison that's pretty much right next to Ryker's. If Ryker's is a maximum security facility, then the Raft is an über-maximum security facility."

"What makes you say that?" Kagome asked.

"The Raft is especially designed and staffed to hold the world's most powerful and dangerous super criminals," Spidey explained. "Each cell is specifically designed and built to keep each inmate incarcerated based upon his or her special powers. What's more, each prisoner is kept whacked out on drugs to keep them from being a threat. Those suckers are injected with enough tranq to drop a charging bull elephant at ten paces every morning with breakfast. How's that sound for a great way to start your day?"

"Not a good one, I have to admit," Kagome said. "That's crazy."

"Tell me about it," Spidey said. "If that place can hold guys like the Wrecking Crew and the U-Foes, then it can certainly hold this Naraku mook."

"You guys are talking nonsense!" Inuyasha shouted at them over his shoulder. "We're gonna kill Naraku, and that's the way it's gonna be!"

Spidey shrugged. "Well, if you're gonna be all adamant about it."

"Oh, ignore him," Kagome said. "He's as stubborn as a mule."

The group kept on moving in the direction they were going without much incident. About ten or so minutes later, Spider-Man's spider-sense started to buzz, ever so slightly. At first, it was extremely faint, almost as if it wasn't even there to begin with. Then, it slowly, but steadily began to get louder, indicating that whatever set it off was getting closer.

"Stay on your toes, people," Spidey warned. "I got a feeling that we're gonna run into some trouble shortly."

Koga turned around to face the wall-crawler. "Oh really? Like what?"

Just then, a figure came barreling straight out of the woods collided with Koga, knocking the both of them to the ground with a loud crash.

"Offhand, I'd say something like that," Spidey said.

"Ugh," Koga stammered as he rubbed the fresh lump on his head. "Who in the . . ?" He looked over at person who had knocked him over. It was a young girl, one he recognized immediately. "Ayame!"

The girl also gathered herself from the collision. She rubbed her eyes in confusion. Then she looked at who she ran into. "Koga!" she shouted jubilantly as she threw her arms around him.

Koga quickly pushed her off him and stood up, flabbergasted. She ignored the action and stood as well. It was the first time Spider-Man, who was arguably more confused than Koga at this point, got a good look at her. She was about Kagome's height, and around her age by all appearances. Her eyes were a bright green and her reddish-brown hair was tied back into two pigtails and accessorized with a bright purple flower. Her forehead was adorned with a thin silver circlet and she wore a necklace decorated with what looked like pieces of jade. She had the same pointy ears and fangs that Koga had, meaning that she must be a demon as well. Come to think of it, her getup looked a lot like Koga's too. She wore the same design chest plate (albeit slightly shaped differently for obvious reasons), and she had the same style of fur coverings that he had, although hers were a light grayish color. In addition, she wore a fur shall over her shoulders. Her voice was shrill and her eyes were pleading; she was obviously in some sort of trouble.

"Koga, I'm so glad I found you! I've been looking everywhere!" she cried.

"Wait, what?" Koga said, still confused.

"Ayame, what are you doing here? Is something the matter?" asked Kagome worryingly.

Ayame's face quickly went from hopeful to glowering as she acknowledged Kagome's presence. "Oh, _you're_ here too, Kagome?" she said with the tiniest hint of contempt in her voice. She quickly turned back to Koga. "So, you're traveling with _her_ now?"

"Uh, yeah," Koga answered somewhat defiantly. "So what?"

"So!" Ayame shouted. "So you know that we're—"

"Whoa! Hey! Time-out here!" Spidey cut in while make a t-shape with his hands, the time-out signal. He looked at Ayame, who looked positively stunned by the oddly dressed man in front of her.

"Hey, hi. Name's Spider-Man. Don't think we've met. Ayame, right? You must be a friend of theirs. So am I. Nice to meet you." He held out his right hand to shake hers. She just looked at it questioningly, not being familiar with that particular greeting custom.

"Right, well, forget that then," Spidey said, withdrawing his hand. "I may be new around here, but I've been around the block enough times to tell a damsel in distress when I see one."

"Excuse me?" Ayame asked.

"You were obviously running from something when you ran into him . . . literally," Spidey explained. "Care to elaborate?"

Ayame quickly gathered herself, realizing that Spider-Man was right; she had almost forgotten why she had gone looking for Koga. She turned to him. "Oh, right. Koga, I need your help!"

"With what?" he asked.

"A giant bear demon is chasing me!" she exclaimed.

"Say what?" Spidey said.

"What! Why?!" Koga shouted.

Ayame took a deep breath, preparing to tell a two-hour story in two minutes. "A while back, Gramps and the rest of our wolf demon tribes up in the north were attacked by a tribe of demon bears who were moving into our territory, and a war soon broke out. After a long while, we were winning up until, their leader came to the front lines. He was way too big and strong for us to take on. So, yesterday, I did my best to lure it away from our den by angering it."

"And that means . . ?" Inuyasha butted in.

Ayame began to twiddle her fingers nervously. "I, um, hit it over the head with a large rock while it was sleeping," she said sheepishly.

"And I take it that worked?" Spider-Man inferred.

"Like a charm, sorta," Ayame answered shyly. "I was hoping that I would be able to lead it far enough west to find you, Koga, and ask for your help. I guess I just sort of knew you were out here somewhere, and I just found you."

"Oh, you're all a bunch of weaklings," Koga sighed. "There's no way even a single demon bear should be tough enough to give you that much trouble. It's pathetic."

"I don't know, man. They are the number one threat in America," Spidey added. Everyone looked at him strangely. Not taking any notice, Spidey rambled on, except he changed his voice to a fake Chicagoan accent. "And back in '85, Da Bears coulda takin' on de entire country o' Poland."

Everyone continued to stare at him like he was insane. Then they looked at Kagome, who shrugged her shoulders in an I-don't-know manner.

"Well, maybe this demon has a shard of the Shikon jewel. That would explain why it's so powerful," Kagome suggested.

"I doubt it," Inuyasha grunted. "You probably would have sensed it by now if it did."

"Hmm," thought Kagome aloud. "I guess you're right."

"'Course I'm right," Inuyasha boasted.

"I suppose that statistically, you have to be once in a while," Spidey interjected. Inuyasha scowled at him while Kagome giggled.

Koga ignored Spider-Man and rounded on Ayame again. "Whatever. The fact of the matter is that I'm kinda already in the middle of something."

Just then, Spider-Man spider-sense blared like mad. He quickly turned behind him and looked into the woods in the direction that Ayame had just emerged from. Something was swiftly approaching. Something big! "Uh, guys?" he dropped the foolishness for the moment and tried to get everyone else's attention.

"Like what?!" Ayame shouted at Koga, getting closer to his face.

"Like trying to find Naraku and kill him for slaughtering our brothers!" Koga spat right back at her, moving closer still to her face.

"Uh, guys?" Spidey tried to get their attention for the second time. Whatever was coming was getting closer, and quickly.

"But this more important than that right now! You have an obligation to your tribe to defend it!" Ayame argued.

"I don't have time to baby-sit a bunch of sissy fools who can't take care of themselves! And I don't have any obligations to anyone!" Koga bellowed.

Ayame had nearly lost it. By now, their noses were practically touching. "You have an obligation to me! As your fi—"

"GUYS!" Spidey yelled over them.

Both Koga and Ayame rounded on him, and so did everyone else. "What?!" they shouted.

Spidey pointed behind him into the woods. "It's here."

As soon as Spidey said that, a massive bear-like creature smashed through the trees with a terrible roar that would have dwarfed a lion. It was easily thirty feet tall, with pitch black fur, blood red eyes, and razor sharp claws and teeth. Each of its mighty claws and teeth were at least two feet long. Its demonic eyes looked around, their gaze finally resting on its minute prey at its feet.

Spidey just stared at the thing. "Man, that thing's huge. It's as big as a Sentinel!"

The beast's eyes centered on Ayame for a second. With another horrendous howl, it brought its gigantic paw down to smash the lot of them. Spider-Man quickly back flipped away from the attack, with Shippo clinging to him for dear life. Miroku pushed Sango to the ground. Koga quickly picked up Ayame bridal-style and leapt out of harm's way, as did Inuyasha with Kagome.

Kagome had had enough time to grab her backpack, but not her bike, which was promptly reduced to scrap by the demon bear's attack. "Ah! Not again!" she cried as she saw it get squashed.

"Forget that blasted contraption for once!" Inuyasha reprimanded her.

"But that was the third one that's been trashed like that! And I really liked that one! It had a bell and everything!" she retorted.

Miroku gathered himself after rescuing Sango and found that he was conveniently lying on top of her. "Are you alright, Sango?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied after giving herself a quick once-over. She looked up at him and smiled slightly. "Thank you, Miroku, you sav—" She stopped dead. She felt that lecherous hand of his again on her backside. "You . . . you filthy-minded scumbag!" she growled as the veins in her forehead popped. She smacked him hard across the face with her open hand. "This is hardly the time for that!" she shrieked.

Miroku, with a fresh new red, hand-shaped mark on his face, quickly got off her. "Oh really," he said with a smirk while he rubbed his new mark, "then perhaps you could tell me when it _would_ be a good time." She hit him again.  
Koga landed away from the beast with Ayame in his arms. He looked down at her frustratingly. "Are you daft, woman?!" he said. "What on earth possessed you to lead that thing here?!"

She huffed and looked away from him while folding her arms, her face slightly red. "Well, you have come to my rescue before," she mumbled.

He seemingly ignored her comment and set her down. He opened his mouth to undoubtedly start arguing again, but Spider-Man's shout cut him off.

"Hey!" Spidey yelled at the others. "Save your squabbles for later! It's game time!" He quickly took Shippo off his shoulder and set him down. "Run for cover, little buddy," he told him, and Shippo quickly complied, ducking behind a nearby tree.

Realizing that Spider-Man was right, Inuyasha, Kagome, and the others promptly dropped their bickering for the moment and readied themselves for battle.

Spider-Man shouted again to the others. "You guys get clear and regroup! I'll hold it off!"

"Like hell I will! Don't patronize me! I can take this thing down myself!" Inuyasha protested.

"What he said!" Koga agreed. "I'm not a weakling who runs and hides! I can handle this!"

Kagome grabbed Inuyasha's ear ("Ow!) and reprimanded him. "Now is not the time to argue! If he says to move, we need to move! We need to trust him!"

"But—"

"NOW!"

" . . . ok," Inuyasha consented meekly.

Kagome quickly looked over at Ayame, her face reverting to its normal kind state faster than a bolt of lightning. "It's alright. We can trust him."

Ayame simply nodded. Kagome's semi-mood swings always did rather freak her out a little. "Koga, maybe we should do what he says."

Koga snorted. "You know what, if that moron wants to go and get himself killed, that's fine by me. Saves me the trouble of doing it myself."

"So go already!" Spidey shouted. With that, Kagome and the others retreated some distance while Spidey turned to face the monstrous creature. The bear's eyes looked down and centered on the small man looking back at it.

"Hey there, Winnie the Pooh," Spidey remarked casually. "I don't suppose we could talk about this over a small smackerel of hunny now could we?"

His answer was a massive claw flying down at him. He nimbly leapt away from the attack and landed on a tree to the right of the beast's head. "No dice, eh? Well then, how 'bout a nice pick-a-nick basket?"

The demon took another swipe at the wisecracking wall-crawler, but it missed again and sliced the tree's top off. Spidey landed on another tree in front of the demon.

"Well, I can tell you're really pissed. Now, it wouldn't be something as mundane and cliché as a thorn in your paw, would it?"

The beast roared and smashed its paws together, trying to squashed the web-slinger between them. Spider-Man jumped up in the air, and yet another tree was wasted before the demon's raging might.

"Didn't think so. But still, maybe I should wrap up those troublesome things anyway," Spidey said.

He quickly webbed up the bear's claws before it could pull them apart. Unfortunately, this only proved to anger it further as it effortlessly tore the webbing to shreds almost as soon as the web-spinner was done spinning it.

"Or not, you know, whatever works for you."

The bear's eyes once again found Spider-Man above it, and it made yet another swipe at him. Spidey realized that by taking the time to web up the beast's paws, he lost whatever time he had to regain enough leverage to be able to move enough to dodge the attack.

"Oh crap," he muttered.

Just as he brought his arms over his face to brace for impact, a massive wave of energy came from below the demon's paw and sliced it clean off. Spidey looked over his arms to see the demon roaring in pain over it missing paw and the immense amount blood that was gushing from its arm. He gathered himself and landed on the ground and looked over at where the energy wave had come from to see Inuyasha standing there, battle ready and his giant sword drawn.

"Thanks pal," Spidey said as he quickly joined his friend. "I owe ya one."

Inuyasha smirked. "Anytime. But I'll have you know I am keeping track."

"Naturally. Who wouldn't?" Spidey replied.

Kagome, Miroku, Sango (who had changed into her battle armor), Kirara, Koga, and Ayame came up behind them.

"You two alright?" Kagome asked.

"Just dandy, thanks," Spidey answered. "Now what's say we put Yogi here down for a nice nap?"

"Sounds like my kinda fun," Koga chuckled as he cracked his knuckles. Without a moment's hesitation, he leapt up at the bear with his fist raised and ready to for a powerful strike. "You wait here, mutt-face, while I waste this thing!" he yelled back cockily.

"What?!" Inuyasha shouted back.

"Koga, be careful!" Ayame called to him.

"Whatever," Koga remarked offhandedly.

Ayame's warning was more than called for, however, because despite its injury, the bear demon was still as angry and alert as ever. It saw Koga coming, and before he could dodge it, it swatted Koga away from it like a fly.

"Argh!" Koga cried as he was flung backwards into a tree behind the group.

"Koga!" Ayame ran back to check on him. After looking at him, she said, "He's okay, it's just a bump."

"What was that you were saying, wolf?" Inuyasha said in a holier-than-thou manner.

"Aw, shut it dog-boy," Koga retorted while rubbing his head.

Before Inuyasha could yell something back, Spidey stopped him by putting his hand on his shoulder. "Leave it. His pride hurts more than his body right now. We don't need recklessness like that to take this thing down. What we need is a plan of attack." He turned to Sango. "Do you think you could flank it with that giant boomerang of yours?"

"You bet," she answered.

"Good," said Spidey. He turned back to Inuyasha. "Then me and you'll come up behind her weapon and attack as soon as its guard drops. Got it?"

Inuyasha snorted. "Who died and made you leader?"

Spidey flicked Inuyasha's ear.

"Hey! What was that for?" Inuyasha cried as he grabbed his throbbing ear.

"Just shut up, swallow your pride, and do it, will you?!" Spidey barked.

Inuyasha huffed. "Whatever."

Spidey turned back to Sango. "Ready?"

"Whenever you are," she replied, and he readied her Hiraikotsu for the attack.

"Alright then, on 'three' then," said Spider-Man. He counted down his fingers. "One . . . two . . ."

"Three!" Inuyasha shouted.

"HIRAIKOTSU!" Sango cried as she launched her weapon at the creature.

As the weapon flew through the air at the bear demon, Spider-Man and Inuyasha leapt off right behind it, ready to finish this battle. It seemed to go to plan; the bear noticed Sango's Hiraikotsu and swatted it away in anger.

"Now!" shouted Spidey as he and Inuyasha launched their combined sneak attack. He swung a mighty punch as Inuyasha brought down his sword in a grand swing.

Then the most unexpected and bizarre thing happened. As they attacked, the bear saw them and roared in a mighty fury. With its mouth open, hordes of miniature copies of itself poured out of its snout like water out of a faucet, snarling and ready to dispatch their master's assailants with deadly force.

"What the hell?!" cried both Spidey and Inuyasha in simultaneous surprise. Spidey quickly switched his attack plan and spun a web-net around the small bear demons in front of him. Inuyasha was forced to cut the small bear demons attacking him rather than their much larger master. Their assault failed, they landed nimbly on the ground.

"What on earth was that?!" Spidey shouted. He looked at Inuyasha. "Did you know it could do that?!"

"How was I supposed to know?!" he yelled back.

"Guys! Look out!" Kagome cried.

Spider-Man and Inuyasha looked up at the demon. It bent over them, opened its mouth, and sent another torrent of its minions at them. The two of them leapt back, defending themselves from the beasts. The giant demon turned in the direction of the interruptive voice, saw the others in hiding, and sent more of its mini-demons at them.

"Heads up, kids!" Spidey shouted a warning.

"Here they come!" said Miroku as he readied his staff.

Sango drew the katana she kept at her side and swung at the nearest mini bear demon that attacked her, which was promptly split in twain. "Kirara! Watch after Kagome!" she called to her feline companion.

Kirara transformed into her larger form and dashed over to Kagome, who was cradling a horribly frightened Shippo. Some of the bear demons charged at them, but Kirara leapt ahead and bit into one's throat, tearing it out. Another swung a paw at her from behind, and she countered with a tail whip. She swung her mighty paw at yet another pair of the demons, swiftly decapitating both of them. She roared at her triumph, and that was enough to get some of the others to back off for the moment.

Ayame was hovering over an injured Koga, desperate to protect him. Three of the small bears charged at her and Koga. "Stay away from him, you beasts!" she cried as she produced three small leaves from seemingly nowhere and threw them at her attackers. Inexplicably, when the leaves hit the heads of the bear demons, they were somehow sharp enough to pierce their hides the demons dropped like flies.

Spider-Man sank another right hook into the jaw of one of the demons. "Well, I'm outta ideas. With Yogi here spitting out little Boo-Boos, it makes it a tad more complicated than I thought."

Inuyasha cleaved another trio of demons with a single swing. "Ditto that. I can't use my Windscar with everyone spread out like this."

Kagome thought for a minute, and then her eyes lit up as a bulb went off in her head. "Maybe it's not as bad as you think!" she shouted. Everyone stole an interested glance at her in the middle of defending themselves. "Everyone brace yourselves! Miroku, use your Wind Tunnel!"

"Of course!" cried Miroku in realization as he swatted away one of the bear demons with his staff. "Why didn't I think of that? Everyone hold onto something!" he warned as he unwrapped his cursed hand from the beads that kept his terrible but useful power at bay.

Spidey used his power to stick to the ground to root himself on the spot. Inuyasha plunged his Tetsusaiga into the ground to anchor himself, and Sango did the same with her katana. Kagome held tightly onto Shippo and Kirara shielded them, while Ayame held onto Koga for dear life.

"WIIND TUNNEL!" Miroku cried as he unleashed his greatest weapon. As soon as he opened the Wind Tunnel, the violent gusts pulled in anything that wasn't secured to the ground. Spidey and the others were safe because of the precautions they had just taken, the remainder of the small bear demons weren't nearly as fortunate; they were consumed by the mysterious void in Miroku's hand. After he surmised that he had defeated the last of the small bear demons, Miroku closed his Wind Tunnel and wrapped the beads around his glove.

When the wind subsided, Kagome quickly called out. "Spider-Man! If you can find some way to close its mouth and restrain it, I can finish it off."

Spidey straightened up and looked at Kagome. "With what?"

"My bow and arrow," she answered plainly.

Spidey stared at her in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"

"Why would I at a time like this?"

"Point taken, but look here, little Ms. Robin Hood. I hardly think that a little thing like a bow and arrow is gonna hurt that monster."

Kagome looked hard at Spider-Man. "Please. I trusted you. Now you have to trust me."

Spidey looked back into Kagome's eyes. Her gaze was intense, and her look was firm; he could find no doubt in her being. "Alright, let's do this then. I still got a trick or two up my spandex."

Spidey looked up at the monster, and saw that it was beginning to regain its bearings from Miroku's attack. He quickly leapt up to a tree on his right, and then bounced to an adjacent tree on his left, then again on his right, until he had reached to the forest's canopy and was level with the bear demon's head.

He whistled to get its attention. "Hey! Over here, you 100 Acre Wood reject!"

It turned to Spider-Man, roaring with rage. Spidey leapt up over the top of its head. As it followed his movements, the beast opened its mouth to launch another batch of its small minions.

Spider-Man saw the attack coming, aimed at the monster's mouth with his web-shooters, and fired, effectively webbing the beast's trap shut. "I don't think so, Smokey. Don't you know how bad bulimia is for your overall health?"

Spidey flipped over the monster and landed on its back, near the base of its neck. He quickly reinforced his webbing, fashioning it into a giant muzzle of sorts. He pulled back on the web-muzzle, causing the bear demon to fall on all fours and buck like a horse.

"Yee haw! I done gone and caught me a wild bronco!" he yelled out in a poor imitation of a Wild West cowboy. To complete the bad illusion, he spun a lasso with his free hand and swung it around. As the beast became more and more aggressive, Spidey threw his web-lasso around its right paw, and quickly spun another to rope around its left paw.

"Whoa nelly! Take it down a notch or two!" Spidey shouted. "Kagome! Any time this century would be nice!"

Back on the ground, Kagome had taken out her shortbow and drawn an arrow. "Just try and hold it steady!" she shouted. "And when I say 'now,' get out of the way!"

Spider-Man looked down at Kagome. Her face was intense, she was sure of herself and her abilities. Strangely, though, Spidey noticed that the point of the arrow she was holding was beginning to glow a violent shade of purple. "Whatever you say, kid!"

Kagome steadied her arrow as she took aim. It was rather difficult because although Spider-Man was trying to restrain the beast, it was still thrashing around quite a bit. Then, Spider-Man pulled back particularly hard on the web-reigns he had fashioned, and the bear demon bucked up with a mighty roar. It was then that Kagome saw her window of opportunity.

"Now!" she shouted as she fired her arrow.

At the signal, Spidey let go of the web-reigns and leapt down from the demon's back. He landed on the ground next to Inuyasha and turned just in time to see Kagome's arrow strike the demon. As the arrow flew through the air, a brilliant purple light surrounded it. The shining arrow pierced the demon right through the heart. As it did so, the beast cried out in fury and pain before being engulfed in the arrow's light and then it disintegrated into nothing.

Spidey stood dumbstruck at the sight he just saw. _Wow. And they call __**me**__ 'amazing.'_ He looked at Kagome. There was a look of relief on her face, but nothing that would be considered particularly unusual; that act was apparently routine for her. Despite her innocence, or perhaps because of it, she was a far more powerful young woman than she appeared. He smirked to himself at her calmness.

"Well slap some purple boxer shorts on me and call me the Hulk. That was incredible lil' lady," he said as he walked up to Kagome to congratulate her.

Kagome smiled shyly while sticking out her a tongue a little. "Thanks, but that really was no big deal."

"No seriously," Spidey said. "Shot through the heart, and you're to blame."

Kagome giggled a little. "Do I give love a bad name too?"

"Nah, but what I wanna know is how you did that thing with the light and the arrow."

"Oh that? Well, I tell you about that later. First, I think we'd better gather our bearings and let things settle down a bit."

"Hmm, good thinking."

"Yeah." With that, Kagome and Spider-Man walked back over the Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango, and the others to take a well-deserved break.

-----------------------------------------

Later that night, the group had gathered around a campfire in a clearing. Spider-Man noticed that you could cut the tension with a knife. Miroku and Sango seemed to be doing relatively well; no smacking or groping to be seen . . . yet. He did notice that Miroku was progressively moving ever so slightly toward Sango, his hand extended just the tiniest bit. Spidey sighed at the young man's perverted immaturity.

The others, however, were even more of a problem. Koga insisted that he needed more of Kagome's modern medicine, to which she obliged, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Inuyasha was glaring daggers at Koga as Kagome applied some antibiotic cream to a cut on Koga's knee, his hand on the hilt of his sword. Ayame, on the other hand, was staring just as angrily at Kagome, but she at least restrained herself to just pouting.

Figuring that he had better try to break the ice before somebody broke a nose, Spidey decided he'd find out a little bit more about this new girl, Ayame. "So, Ayame?" he asked.

She looked at him, a little of her frustration still present on her countenance. "Yes?" she responded icily.

Spider-Man could have sworn he felt his spider-sense tingle the slightest bit, but he figured he'd imagined it. Still, his next question faltered a bit. "So, uh, um, how do you know Koga and this lot?"

She huffed and threw a particularly poisonous glance at Koga and Kagome. "I'm Koga's fiancée."

Spidey was glad he wasn't drinking something, because if he had been, he would have done a spit take. "What?"

Koga stood up, accidentally knocking down Kagome in the process, and glared down at Ayame. "I've told you before, and I'll tell you again! We are not engaged!"

Ayame got right in Koga's face, with traces of tears in her eyes. "Of course we are! Don't you remember the night of the lunar rainbow?"

That confused Spidey. "Lunar rainbow? Anyone care to fill me in on that one?"

Ayame wiped the tears from her eyes and sat down. She faced Spider-Man and tried to put a smile on her face. "A long time ago, back when I was just a little girl, I got lost in a forest while looking for a certain flower to use in special training. I found myself attacked by some of the bird of paradise demons."

Spidey looked at Koga. "You did mention those, didn't you?" A snort was all he got for a reply.

Ayame continued. "Just as I was about to be devoured, Koga came out of nowhere and slew the demons." Her face brightened up and she brought back her happiest memory. "He saved my life!"

Spidey smirked. "Your own knight in furry armor, huh?" he remarked. Koga growled.

Ayame ignored them both. "Then he carried me out of the forest and told me not to worry or be sad, and he promised to marry me when I came down from my training in the northern mountains."

Koga snorted again. Everyone ignored him.

"That night, as we passed by a river, we saw a rainbow in the night sky, underneath a full moon." Ayame said as she blushed heavily. "Ohhhhhh, it was soooo romantic!"

Spidey rolled his eyes under his mask. _Oy gevalt. Teenagers_.

Koga grunted. "Like I said, I don't remember that even happening. You're delusional." He shifted his weight around a little. He seemed uneasy about something. "Nope, don't remember a thing."

Ayame looked teary-eyed again. "It did too happen!" she shouted at him. Kagome stood up and tried to console Ayame by putting her hand on her shoulder. Ayame didn't seem to be angry with Kagome any longer and took her hand while sobbing. She did seem to calm down a little.

Spidey massaged his chin in thought. "You know," he said after a while, "I hate to say it, but maybe Koga's right. That story makes about as much sense to me as a Bob Dylan song. I don't think that happened either."

Kagome and Ayame gasped at him. "How can you say that!" they cried.

"I'm talking about the lunar rainbow," he replied calmly. "I doubt there is such a thing."

Kagome and Ayame calmed down slightly and sat back down. "What do you mean?" Ayame asked.

"A rainbow is simply a diffusion of white light that is refracted through a crystalline prism, which splits it into the various colors of the visible light spectrum," Spider-Man explained.

Ayame was completely dumbfounded. "What?"

"In terms of light, white is a combination of all the possible shades of color, and conversely, black is the absence of color. After it rains, some humidity remains in the atmosphere, and that ambient moisture acts as the prism for light from the sun to be refracted. That's why you usually see rainbows after or during rainfalls." He thought for a second, and then continued. "But what gets me is that the sun wasn't out. But the moon was. Moonlight is a reflection of light from the sun. But I doubt that even a full moon could be illuminescent enough to provide enough light to be diffused enough to produce a visible rainbow. If you truly saw lights in the night sky, the only possible phenomenon it could have been would have to be Aurora Borealis."

"Aurora Bore-what?" Inuyasha blurted.

"Aurora Borealis," Spider-Man repeated, "more commonly known as the Northern Lights. But that wouldn't be plausible either because those are only seen in the Arctic Circle. We're far too south for that."

The group looked at one another in total confusion.

"Okay, I didn't understand a word he just said. Any of you get that?" Koga asked.

"Nope, not a one," answered Inuyasha. "Did you, Kagome?"

Kagome, however, did not reply. At some point during Spidey's mini-lecture, she had gotten out a notebook and pencil and began taking notes. "Shhhh," she said as she scribbled away. "This is good stuff. Could you repeat that part about light refraction again?"

Spidey stared at her. "Uhhhhhhhh . . . I didn't know class was in session."

Kagome smiled weakly. "Oh, sorry. That seemed like such good information, I figured I should write it down for me to use in my science class."

Spidey rubbed the back of his head. "I guess I kinda got a little carried away there. I am a scientist by nature, so I tend to overanalyze things like that when I get in the zone. You know how it is."

"Heh heh, yeah," Kagome said.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, which was then broken by a screech from Sango. Apparently, Miroku's hand finally found its mark, which he was promptly punished for by a swift blow to his left temple.

"Why don't you keep your hands to yourself for once in your life, you lecherous degenerate?!" Sango shouted at him.

Miroku smiled weakly while rubbing his newest bump. "Heh heh, you know that's hard with this cursed hand and all."

Now Sango was really starting to lose her temper. "Why you . . . you . . . why don't you go make yourself useful for a change and go find something for dinner!" she screamed at him.

Realizing that if he stayed any longer, he could very well lose that "cursed" hand of his, not to mention the arm it was attached to, he quickly got up and walked out of the clearing back into the forest in the direction of the nearby river. Meanwhile, Inuyasha had been snickering at his friend's emasculation. Unfortunately for him, Kagome saw that.

"Why do you go with him if you think that's so funny," she said coolly.

Inuyasha guffawed. "And what if I don't feel like it?"

"Then I say si—"

Before she could finish, Inuyasha had already dashed off after Miroku, equally emasculated. The three girls then briefly centered their eyes on Koga. Realizing that he was dangerously outnumbered, he quickly got up and made to follow them.

"Heh, you know that it would be quicker if more were helping, so I think I'll go lend a hand. Heh heh," he excused himself.

"Good idea," Ayame said with the smallest hint of venom in her voice.

After Koga had left, Ayame, Kagome, and Sango quickly rounded on Spider-Man, moving closer to him. Completely caught off guard, he eyed them warily.

_Uh oh_, he thought. _I know I should have had Matt write up my last will and testament when he suggested it_.

Shippo, who had been napping until now, jumped onto Spidey's shoulder while yawning. "They not gonna kill you, you know."

"Heh, yeah, you're right. Occupational instinct." He turned to the girls. "The lot of you certainly can lose your temper when you want to. My heart goes out to those guys."

They blushed slightly. Sango twiddled her fingers. "Well . . . it's just that . . . you know . . . sometimes he . . .," she stammered.

"Really pushes your buttons?" Spider-Man finished for her.

"Yeah, pretty much," Sango agreed. Ayame and Kagome nodded.

"You don't really seem like that, though," Kagome pointed out.

Spidey waved off her comment. "Nah, I've done my share of dumb things in my time. And believe you me, my wife has given me many a chewing out for it. It's the nature of our gender. I just grew out of it. Well, most of it anyway. And trust me, they will too . . . eventually." He laughed to himself inside at the girls' problems; they were so like and yet, at the same time, unlike his own at that age. "So, Ayame, Kagome, what's the deal with you and . . ."

Ayame huffed. "That inconsiderate jerk! I can't believe he forgot."

"I'm not so sure he did," Spidey commented.

"Huh?"

"Trust me, he wasn't hiding that lie of his very well. I could tell he was bluffing you. He remembers, he just doesn't want to."

"How could you tell that?" asked Sango.

"Because you don't forget things like that. We guys just want you to think that so we can get out of living back up to it. I know I really wouldn't forget something like that. As a matter of fact, I can remember the first words my wife ever said to me."

As soon as he said that, the three girls rushed up to his face with glowing looks on their faces.

"Really? That's so romantic!" exclaimed Ayame.

"Oh, what did she say?" asked Sango.

"Come on, tell us!" pleaded Kagome.

Spidey threw his hands up in defense and slightly backed away. "Um . . . well . . . uh . . ." He saw the look in their eyes and realized there was no weaseling his way out of this one. He eased up a little and began to reminisce about his good old days.

"Well," he explained, "to tell the truth, our aunts had been trying to set us up for a while, but without any success because, um, our timing wasn't so good. Yeah, that's it. Timing. Anyhow, well, they eventually set us up on a blind date. She dropped by that night, and I saw her for the first time when I answered the door." He chuckled to himself for a second. "I was so awestruck by her beauty, I was speechless. When I didn't say anything, she broke the ice."

"So, what did she say?" prodded Kagome.

Spider-Man let himself have one more chortle. "'Face it, Tiger. You just hit the jackpot.' And indeed I did. Indeed I did."

"Wow, that's wonderful," said Sango.

"Yeah," agreed Ayame. "And if he can remember something like that, then Koga must remember our night under the lunar rainbow."

Kagome spoke up. "You know, Ayame, there's nothing going on between me and Koga; I only see him as a friend, nothing more."

Ayame sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'm not mad at you." She giggled a little. "Now we just need to get him to realize that."

Kagome laughed back. "Yeah."

Spidey smiled. They were having a moment. They were obviously much more mature than their male companions. "So, let me see if I can get all this love stuff straight with you guys. Kagome, you like Inuyasha. And I pretty sure he likes you back."

"You really thi—" Kagome started hopefully.

"Please," Spidey interrupted, "no girly stuff until I'm finished." Kagome hushed up quite indignantly.

"But we got this Kikyo person who was his old girlfriend, and you say he still has feelings for her, and vice versa."

Kagome nodded silently, somewhat crestfallen.

"Plus, Koga is intent on marrying you, unfortunately. And he's already engaged to Ayame anyway."

Kagome laughed uncomfortably. She could feel Ayame's piercing gaze through the back of her head. Then she shook her head and added, "That's not all."

Spidey and the two other girls looked up at her with puzzling looks. "There's also this boy in my class back who likes me. His name's Hojo."

"Don't you mean that guy we met a while back, my vassal, Akitoki Hojo?" Shippo asked.

"Oh yeah, him too," Kagome said. "But, no. I was talking about someone else. Same name, different person." She quickly leaned over to Spidey to whisper in his ear. "Akitoki is the ancestor of the Hojo in my class."

"Uh, yeah, ok," he mumbled, confused. He held up his fingers, trying to count something. "So we got him, and the other guy, and . . . no, wait, there's . . . and . . . huh."

"Having trouble trying to figure out all the love triangles around here?" chuckled Shippo.

Spidey put down his hand in exasperation. "Actually, I think it's more like an octagon at this point."

Kagome giggled a little. It was really something that he could turn a situation that embarrassing and unlucky into something humorous.

Spidey turned to Sango. "So, there's all that, and that Miroku guy keeps feeling you up."

Sango huffed. "Yeah. And it's not just me. He does that to every pretty girl he sees."

Spider-Man twitched. "What?"

"If only that were it," Sango continued her rant. "You haven't even heard that line he always uses about having his child."

Spidey was completely taken aback. "Beg pardon?"

Sango folded her arms across her chest in aggravation. "Oh yeah. He asks very girl he meets to bear his child. He somehow got it in his head that he has to have a son soon, in case he doesn't defeat Naraku before that 'cursed hand' of his kills him. He thinks he has to leave an heir to do it for him."

Spidey turned to Kagome. "Please tell me she's pulling my leg."

Kagome sighed. "I wish she was, but yeah, he does ask that. He even asked me that question shortly after we first met."

Spidey was astonished. "He did what?"

Kagome nodded.

Spidey slowly began to clench his fist. "Oh, I'm gonna have to have a little chat with those boys when they get back," he growled.

"Yeah, they are jerks," Kagome agreed. Sango and Ayame nodded as well. "Speaking of which, where are they? They should be back by now."

Elsewhere, at the nearby river, those jerks were just wrapping up their food expedition. Inuyasha, Miroku, and Koga all simultaneously sneezed just as they started back to camp with their catch.

"Ok, that was weird," remarked Inuyasha.

"Uh, yeah, it was," Miroku brushed off the strange phenomenon.

"Say, Miroku," Inuyasha inquired.

"Yeah?"

"Have you noticed that the girls really seem to have taken a liking to Spider-Man kinda quick-like?"

Miroku thought for a moment. "You know, now that you mention it, I have noticed that. Kagome especially."

Inuyasha growled. "That guy's got some nerve. I'm really gonna give that guy what-for the next time I see him."

"Yeah, me too," Koga added.

"Relax, guys," Miroku chided them. "I seriously doubt that Kagome likes him like that. In fact, I'm certain of it."

"Really?" asked Inuyasha. "What makes you say that?"

"Well," Miroku began to explain, "Although he's never shown us his face, or told us much about himself, I can tell that he's considerably older than we are. Probably somewhere between eight and ten years. You've nothing to fear from him. They wouldn't have that kind of relationship. Plus, he did mention that he was married."

"You may have a point, monk," Koga said, "but then what kind of relationship would they have?"

"Hmm," Miroku thought aloud. "You know, I'm not sure."

The boys decided to let it go for the moment, and continued back to camp with the fish they had caught. When they returned, they found the girls in deep conversation with Spider-Man. They were crowed around him, constantly bombarding him with personal questions. Judging from his body language, Spider-Man didn't seem all too thrilled with the idea.

"Come on, tell us about your first date with your wife," insisted Kagome.

"You know, I'm not sure about that," he replied shiftily.

"Why not?" asked Sango.

"Well, because . . ." he said. He was trapped. That is, until he saw that Inuyasha and the others had returned. "Hey! The guys are back!" He quickly stood up and rushed over to Inuyasha. "Here, let me help you with that," he said moving to take some off the fish Inuyasha had slung over his shoulder. As he did so, he leaned in to whisper to Inuyasha. "Thanks a ton, man. You don't know what you just saved me from."

Inuyasha laughed a little. "So that would make two you owe me then, right?"

Spidey groaned slightly. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, fuzz ball."

The group went about preparing dinner, which consisted of the usual fish and pretty much nothing else. Almost miraculously, it more or less passed without any problems. Afterwards, the lot were sitting around the fire before they decided to turn in. During the conversation, Spider-Man turned to Kagome.

"So, I was wondering. When you guys go all-natural like this, is fish the only thing you eat?"

Kagome sighed. "Yeah, more or less."

Spidey sighed himself. "I was afraid of that. I miss cheeseburgers."

"Yeah, me too," Kagome agreed.

"And hot dogs. Did you know that Manhattan has the world's best hot dogs? I'm so hungry that at this point, I'd almost consider it worth the triple bypass I'd have to have later."

Kagome laughed a little.

"What on earth are you two talking about now?" Inuyasha grumbled.

"Oh, nothing about you, trust me," Spidey replied. He and Kagome shared another small chuckle.

Before Inuyasha could yell at them again, Ayame got everyone's attention by clearing her throat.

"You know, I've been thinking. And I've decided that I'd like to come with you guys on your journey."

Kagome and Sango smiled happily, while Kirara mewed with enthusiasm. Spider-Man, Shippo, and Miroku shrugged indifferently. Inuyasha and Koga, however, looked livid. Inuyasha was about to protest, but a single glare from Kagome silenced him instantly. Koga wasn't hampered by such a thing, and rose to his feet in anger.

"Are you nuts? You can't come with!" he shouted.

"Why not?" Ayame asked.

Koga hesitated for a moment. "Well . . . because . . . because the elders will be worried about you. You have obligations to the clan!"

Ayame huffed. "Like you have any right to lecture me about that. Besides, Gramps can handle things just fine by himself for a little while. It's more important that I be here with you guys."

"It's not just that!" Koga said uncomfortably.

"Then what?!"

"It's too dangerous! That's why! We're going after Naraku, an extremely powerful and evil demon! You could get hurt!"

Ayame stomped her foot down. A small but noticeable blush was visible on her face. "I don't care! We're going to share our lives one day, Koga! I want to be a part of this because it's something you want to do. Can't you understand that?"

"But . . ."

"Dude, just let it go," Spidey interrupted. "She's obviously made up her mind. She's coming. End of story."

"Spider-Man has a point, Koga," Miroku added. "Women are stubborn. Once they decided on something, no amount of reasoning change their minds."

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" asked an indignant Sango.

"Just look at the two of you. You're proof enough of that," said Inuyasha.

"What did you say?!" Kagome yelled.

"Did I stutter?!" Inuyasha shouted back.

And within seconds, yet another shouting match had started. With Inuyasha, Kagome, Miroku, Sango, Koga, and Ayame all simultaneously screaming their heads off, it was impossible to discern what any one person was saying. Spider-Man tried to tune out all that racket, but he wasn't having much luck. He sighed in exasperation.

"Their such children," said Shippo, who was perched on Spidey's shoulder and sucking on a lollipop.

Spidey buried his face in his hands. "Tell me about it. I _am_ babysitting, aren't I?"

"You and me both," said Shippo.

Kirara mewed in agreement.


End file.
